CHEMISTRY GLOSSARY

ceiling level    →   maksimalno dopustiva koncentracija

Ceiling level or ceiling value is the maximum permissible concentration of a hazardous material in the working environment. This level should not be exceeded at any time.

diffraction grating    →   difrakcijska rešetka

Diffraction grating is a series of slits used to separate an incident wave into its component wavelengths by directionally separating their diffraction maxima.

Fermi level    →   Fermijev nivo

Fermi level is the highest energy of occupied states in a solid at zero temperature. The Fermi level in conductors lies in the conduction band, in insulators it lies in the valence band, and in semiconductors it falls in the gap between the conduction band and the valence band. It was named after the Italian physicst Enrico Fermi (1901 - 1954).

levorotatory    →   lijevokretan

Levorotatory is refers to an optically active substance that rotates the plane of plane polarised light counterclockwise.

air    →   zrak

Air that we breathe is a mixture of gases. The composition of dry-air at sea level is shown below:

atmosphere    →   atmosfera

1. Atmosphere is the column of air which is extending several hundred kilometers above the surface the Earth's surface. The density of this air decreases as you proceed up from the surface. The air in the atmosphere consists of 78 % nitrogen, 21 % oxygen, and 0.9 % argon. The remaining 0.1 % of the atmosphere consists of ozone, water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, helium, and neon. The atmosphere is divided into different regions. The lowest two layers are the troposphere (the layer closest to the earth) and the stratosphere respectively. These two layers contain more than 99 % of the atmospheric molecules.

2. Standard atmosphere (atm) is an obsolete pressure and stress unit which should be discontinued. It is unit of pressure equal to the air pressure measured at mean sea level.

1 atm = 101 325 Pa

Technical atmosphere (at) is an obsolete MKpS pressure and sttress derived unit.

1 at = 98 066.5 Pa

1 atm = 1.033 227 453 at

atmospheric pressure    →   atmosferski tlak

Atmospheric pressure is the pressure exerted by weight of the air above it at any point on the earth’s surface. At sea level the atmosphere will support a column of mercury about 760 mm high. This decreases with increasing altitude. The standard value for the atmospheric pressure at sea level in SI units is 101 325 Pa.

decibel    →   decibel

Decibel (db) is a unit of sound intensity level, or sound power level, defined by equation relating sound intensities or sound power to reference level.

elementary reaction    →   elementarna reakcija

Elementary reaction is a reaction that occurs in a single step. Equations for elementary reactions show the actual molecules, atoms, and ions that react on a molecular level.

balance    →   vaga

Balance is an instrument to measure the mass (or weight) of a body. Balance beam type scales are the oldest type and measure weight using a fulcrum or pivot and a lever with the unknown weight placed on one end of the lever, and a counterweight applied to the other end. When the lever is balanced, the unknown weight and the counterweight are equal. The equal-arm balance consists of two identical pans hung from either end of a centrally suspended beam. The unequal-arm balance is made with one arm of the balance much longer than the other.

More modern substitution balances use the substitution principle. In this calibrated weights are removed from the single lever arm to bring the single pan suspended from it into equilibrium with a fixed counter weight. The substitution balance is more accurate than the two-pan device and enables weighing to be carried out more rapidly.

Electromagnetic force restoration balances also use a lever system but a magnetic field is used to generate the force on the opposite end of the lever and balance out the unknown mass. The current used to drive the magnetic coil is proportional to the mass of the object placed on the platform.