CHEMISTRY GLOSSARY

asbestos    →   azbest

Asbestos is any one of a group of fibrous amphibole minerals (from the silicate group). It has widespread commercial uses because of its resistance to heat, chemical inertness., and high electrical resistance. Since 1970s short asbestos fibres have been recognized as a cause of asbestosis, a serious lung disorder, and mesothelioma, a fatal form of lung cancer. These concerns have limited its use and imposed many safety procedures when it is used.

wire mesh    →   azbestna mrežica

Wire mesh (wire gauze) is used for uniform distribution of flame heat in base of a heated body. It is made of a iron wire strands with or without ceramic interior cores.

Bunsen burner    →   Bunsenov plamenik

Bunsen burner is a standard source of heat in the laboratory. German chemist Roberts Bunsen (1811-1899) improved the burner's design, which had been invented by Faraday, to aid his endeavors in spectroscopy. The Bunsen burner has a vertical metal tube through which a fine jet of fuel gas is directed. Air is drawn in through airholes near the base of the tube and the mixture is ignited and burns at the tube’s upper opening. The flow of this air is controlled by an adjustable collar on the side of the metal tube. When the whole is closed a yellow safety flame is displayed. Where as when the whole is open it displays a power dull blue flame with a faint blue outer flame with a vibrant blue core used u for combustion and hearting. The flame can reach temperatures of 1 500 °C.

thermal resistance    →   toplinski otpor

Heat always flows from a higher to a lower temperature level. The driving force for the heat flux lies in the temperature difference ΔT between two temperature levels. Analogous to Ohm’s law, the following holds:

where H = dQ/dt is heat flux, measured in watts, ΔT is temperature difference across the thermal resistance, measured in kelvin, and R_th is thermal resistance, measured in K/W.

For example, suppose there were two houses with walls of equal thickness; one is made of glass and the other of asbestos. On a cold day, heat would pass through the glass house much faster. The thermal restistance of asbestos is then higher than of glass.

If the thermal Ohm’s law is divided by the heat capacity C, Newton’s law of cooling is obtained:

where dT/dt is rate of cooling or heating, measured in K s^-1, and C is heat capacity, measured in J K^-1.