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Fact or Fiction: POP Culture meets Chemistry

Fact or Fiction: POP Culture meets Chemistry. Could that really happen?. FACT OR FICTION PROJECT: AP CHEMISTRY. Objective

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Fact or Fiction: POP Culture meets Chemistry

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  1. Fact or Fiction: POP Culture meets Chemistry Could that really happen?

  2. FACT OR FICTION PROJECT: AP CHEMISTRY • Objective • The objective of this year-end project is to emphasize research and technical writing skills by finding a chemistry related concept in a movie/media clip and testing the validity of its claim by doing research. • Expected Products • Oral Presentation on Research Findings: PowerPoint or imoviewith the media clip (under 3 minutes) inserted ( not to exceed 10 minutes total)

  3. Fulminated Mercury The Next Frontier of Explosives? FACT or FICTION

  4. Video Background • In Breaking Bad, Walt is a high school chemistry teacher turned criminal producing metamphetamine (crystal meth) to sell on the black market. • At one point his partner, Jesse, gets swindled and beaten up by a psychopathic gangster named Tuco. • The following video shows Walt's confrontation with Tuco and subsequent explosion using Mercury Fulminate.

  5. Breaking Bad Video Clip

  6. Research Problem Could a small crystal of mercury fulminate really blow windows out and shatter glass?

  7. Properties of Mercury Fulminate -It is prepared by reacting mercury with nitric acid and then adding ethanol. -The crystals are usually brown to grey (due to colloidal mercury) and large crystals are extremely unstable -Pressure changes, vibrations and shock can lead to detonation. The explosive properties can be demonstrated in the lab by hitting a very small crystal with a hammer.

  8. Properties of Mercury Fulminate • insoluble in water • exists as white powder Mercury (II) fulminate comprises two fulminate ions (CNO-) bonded to a central mercury atom. Mercury (II) fulminate is very sensitive because of the instability of the fulminate ion.

  9. Reasons for Instability • single bond is unstable-->immediately break in most reactions • nitrogen will most likely bond with other nitrogen atoms, forming nitrogen gas.

  10. Detonation of Mercury Fulminate • Detonation produces mercury vapor, carbon monoxide and nitrogen. • Potential Explosion Pathway • 2Hg(CNO)2 → 2CO2+N2+Hg(CN)2

  11. The explosion • Size: approximately his thumb, around 1in3 or 72.43 g • Energy released: ~125.666kj • Energy density on the blast front = E/(4πr^2) • Layout of Room

  12. -Ultimately only .9-1.8 kJ of energy would be received by windows which is not enough to shatter them! -The Verdict based on the research: FICTION!!

  13. The Process of Research Identify an area of interest Search sources for relevant information Evaluate Resources

  14. Choosing a Topic

  15. Research Question Or too narrow.. Example of too broad a topic: Is there a material that can pull the weight of an average sized human without breaking? Example of too narrow a topic: What is the numerical value of the tensile strength of a nylon-based material?

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