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[GavJ]

A nice little project that would have been easily within the technology level of our dwarves. Maybe even by accident (left out a bottle of dwarven wine too long and knocked it over onto your nice limestone coffer?)

CaCO3 + CH3COOH --(vigorously)--> Ca(CO3COO)2 + CO2 + H2O
I.e. chunk of limestone I grabbed from a road cut near my apartment + household vinegar yields bubbles and calcium acetate.
Left to react fully then slowly evaporate for days and wick the solution up into crystals. Which are surprisingly pure! Apparently nothing else dissolved in the vinegar, or if it did it isn't falling out of solution just yet to contaminate the crystals.

This is the same process that forms some crystalline stalagmites and stalactites in solutional cave systems (though not necessarily this exact salt, but similar, and maybe this one sometimes!). It's also a reaction that happens in your stomach if you eat, I don't know, too many pickles and then take a Tums (otherwise known as crushed up limestone and food coloring). Although not the crystals.



Next time, I think I'll choose a narrower container, a pointier rock, and put marbles in as it evaporates to keep the water high and force a single crystal to take up all the mass of the salt.

[Solymr]

But this is CALCIUM acetate :V
Sodium acetate is a salt similar to sodium chloride and it tastes quite yummy.

[Skyrunner]

That's pretty pretty.

[Kirbypowered]

Heh. There's a little souvenir shop near here that sells something along the lines of "miniture crystal gardens," which I'm almost completely sure is just this. It's a box of three or four little powder-covered rocks that tells you to leave them in vinegar for a week or two or some such...so, y'know, they're just selling rocks.

It's a cool reaction though. Pretty easy to prepare and with nice results.

[GavJ]

But this is CALCIUM acetate :V
Sodium acetate is a salt similar to sodium chloride and it tastes quite yummy.

Derp, title typo. Sodium acetate rolls off the tongue more easily.

so, y'know, they're just selling rocks.

Yeah this much limestone is probably like... 1/10th of a penny at a quarry, lol.


Also fun: mix the harvested crystals with alcohol bit by bit and you can get a gelly substance very similar to Sterno camp stove heater stuff.

[~Neri]

I think this ish interesting.

[Tiruin]

Mmm, rocks.
PTW ._.

[Graknorke]

Yay, easy chemistry. The best kind.

[Tiruin]

They look like fly eggs, truth be told.

Fly eggs are more oval and ridged ._. and icky.

Chemistry is awesome.
Carbon is awesome!

[GavJ]

Yay, easy chemistry. The best kind.

Well I worked at a biochem lab for three years too. Trust me, though, you don't want a thread that starts with photos of extracting immunoglobulins from mouse blood =)

[Graknorke]

Yay, easy chemistry. The best kind.

Well I worked at a biochem lab for three years too. Trust me, though, you don't want a thread that starts with photos of extracting immunoglobulins from mouse blood =)

Or do we???
Probably not because it likely involves putting something in with the blood then putting it in a machine and waiting.

[Tiruin]

You'll see more of the machine than the process itself, mind you Most of it is...err, how do I say either too small for the human eye//needs cameras to show how it works//is covered up by the machine's covering.

[Graknorke]

You'll see more of the machine than the process itself, mind you Most of it is...err, how do I say either too small for the human eye//needs cameras to show how it works//is covered up by the machine's covering.

Hence why it's waiting rather than watching.

[GavJ]

Naw you can totally see it happening. This is a photo I took once (which actually became part of a patent by my coworkers they loved my photography so much):

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[scrdest]

Yay, easy chemistry. The best kind.

Well I worked at a biochem lab for three years too. Trust me, though, you don't want a thread that starts with photos of extracting immunoglobulins from mouse blood =)

I do. Especially since I'm likely going to end up having to see it firsthand very soon.