Tag Archives: water

Methane Plus Oxygen Yields Carbon Dioxide and Water

Carbon dioxide, Climate, , ,

Visualized here is  a chemical reaction, the burning of a molecule of methane.   These  are made with an organic chemistry model kit,  wherein the elements carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen are represented by the black spheres,  red spheres,  and white spheres, respectively.

DSC00729 One methane molecule,  CH4, which is an atom of carbon bonded with four atoms on hydrogen, reacts with two molecules of oxygen (O2),  each of which consists of two atoms of oxygen bonded together,DSC00728

rearranges the atoms to yield one molecule of carbon dioxide (CO2), and two molecules of water (H2O).

People (scientists of different types, e.g. chemists, physicists, climatologists) study interactions of these molecules in the atmosphere.   Methane, carbon dioxide, and water are all greenhouse gases in order of decreasing strength per molecule.

 

Visiting Our Compost Pile

Garden, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , ,

DSC02160 Mr. Possum came to eat from our

compost pile.

DSC02162 Sometimes he did not look  friendly, and I thought about what he could be carrying in the way of noxious microbes and parasites, so I decided to discourage him.

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I remembered a safe formula for discouraging cats and dogs from entering a garden in this book, and thought it would work for possums, so I looked it up.

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Here it is!  DSC02171  I made a quart of this by blending up a whole head of garlic instead of using the garlic powder.  I added the 1/4 cup of Tabasco sauce, a 1/2 teaspoon of vegetable oil, and  shook it up in the one quart spray bottle.  The spray mechanism did not get plugged with the garlic at any time.  A very small residue on my hands did not hurt my eyes when I rubbed them.

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I squirted a couple of squirts of this into the compost, and lifted the sides off of the compost.  Mr. Possum went scampering down the alley.  I hope he will not return.  I sprayed by far the most of it around and into the garden to discourage cats and dogs from entering our garden.  We’ll see how long the spray effects will last.

Carbon Dioxide from Methane

Climate, Education, Environment, Global, , , , ,

DSC00729A model of a methane molecule and two oxygen molecules, the reactants  when we burn methane (natural gas) in air.  The methane molecules is made of one carbon atom (black)  and four hydrogen atoms (white).   Methane is  a  hydrocarbo.  It is also a fossil fuel.  The element oxygen occurs in the atmosphere as two oxygen atoms (red) combined into a molecule.   When the methane burns, the above reactants become rearranged into the products below, with the release of energy.

DSC00728 These are the products formed, carbon dioxide and water,  when methane burns in oxygen.  The leftmost molecule is carbon dioxide, made up of one carbon atom (black)  and two oxygen atoms (red).  Each of the two water molecules is made up of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom.  Carbon dioxide is the greenhouse gas which is put into the atmosphere when methane, or any fossil fuel is burned.  This is  the source of our global warming.