[Tutor] Off Topic re: unichr not working as expected

[Steven D'Aprano]

On 24/07/13 04:53, Jim Mooney wrote:
> On 23 July 2013 07:28, Steven D'Aprano <steve at pearwood.info> wrote:
>
>>
>> (I trust that everyone remembers enough high school chemistry to
>> understand why Mercurial is called hg? Hg is the chemical symbol for
>> Mercury.)
>>
>
> And I recall my high school chemistry teacher claiming the noble gases
> could never combine, until someone just decided to cook  up some Xenon
> Tetraflouride. Always fun when you get to contradict your teacher in class,
> and you're right - wel it was then. I'm a tad more mature, now - sometimes
> ;')


Completely off-topic, you may get a kick out of "Things I Won't Work With", where a professional chemist periodically writes about chemical compounds that he won't work with for various reasons:


- chemicals that set fire to sand, bricks, and asbestos;

- chemicals that stink so unbearably that fogging the air with nitric oxide actually *improves* the air quality;

- chemicals that detonate at -300°F;

- chemicals so explosive that mixing them with TNT makes them more stable;

- solutions that become more dangerous rather than less when you put them in the freezer;

- chemicals more reactive than elemental fluorine -- some of which are made *from* elemental fluorine;

- and chemicals which have short-term acute toxic effects, long-term chronic toxic effects if you survive the acute ones, and are carcinogenic if you survive the chronic toxicity.


http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/things_i_wont_work_with/



-- 
Steven