So i recently learned/realized that i personally know Uncle Fester, even got some of his books for free from his son, signed. So I've been reading the books lately, and i realized this is something i could really get into. I have so much time on my hands, and I've been looking for something for so long to devote my time to, and I've finally found it.

I just don't know where to start, to understand all of this. I'm thinking about going to Barnes & Noble and buying the books 'chemistry for dummies' and 'organic chemistry for dummies', since i can't seem to find torrents.
But, what would you niggaz suggest??

Where to start, with chemistry.

Right here :
Oil 'n water don't mix.

Go outside. Right fucking now. Grab a fuckload of grass clippings.

- Do a water extraction on some of them.

- Do a dry isopropanol extraction on some of them.

- Do a butane extraction on some of them. Mmm... BHO.

Now...

- do a butane extraction on your water extraction.

- do an iso extraction on your water extraction.

- do an iso extraction on your butane extraction of your water extraction.

You now have, in order...

"That which is soluble in water and butane, but insoluble in isopropanol" - the part of the first which is left over after the third.

"That which is soluble in water and isopropanol, but insoluble in butane" - the remainder of the second.

And "that which is soluble in butane, water, and isopropanol" - the extraction of the third.

That's pretty neat. You can do this with the butane and iso fractions as well - that which is insoluble in water wasn't pulled in the water extraction obviously - but the point is, you have seperated out chemical fractions according to their properties. 'n that's the whole point, for the moment.

Now... drop a little iodine on a sample of each. Does it remain golden-brown, or does it turn purple-black? If the former, no sugar. If the latter, sugar.

Drop it in a sample of marquis reagent - does it change color? If so, you've probably got alkaloids in your sample, and you know what color it (or they) yields in a marquis test, for each fraction. (chromatographic development helps, but we'll get you on the basics first).

Drop a bit in a test tube of tollen's reagent (hell, SN could probably be persuaded to sell you that at a fair price, too). Did the test tube turn mirrored? If so... JOO GOTS ALDEHYDES, HOMBRE!!

If j00 gots no aldehydes or alkaloids, drop in a little aqueous ammonia. Did shit precipitate? If so, j00 got ketones! :)

Straining the precipitate and reevaporating the broth will give you "the ketones which are soluble in ___ and insoluble in ___" (the precipitate), and "the non-ketones which are soluble in ___ and insoluble in ___."

There's more... distillation, recrystallization, thermal precipitation through phase changes in miscible substances, whatever... but that's not the point : the point is to get up off your butt, yank some grass clippings out of your backyard, and seperate them into the damned chemical fractions. Just so you start doing it. 'n if you don't have a backyard, you've got either a courtyard or a park. All depends on how rural you are. Make it work. SRS, do it nao fagit.

The bulk of the art is the seperation of one thing from another by its properties. A matter, its properties in consideration its matter isolate. That's the most important part, 99.999% of everything worthwhile. Practice this, get good at this, master the fuck out of this, and then, when you can seperate inseperable compounds in your sleep twelve different ways and can rip anything into its constituent components, then you can start. ;)

We'll be happy to teach you a billion other ways to isolate things... but for now, fractionate the lawn clippings and make a post giving us everything you can tell us about the chemical fractions within them. Seriously. We've told you where to get started, now go... get started.

I expect to see that thread soon. ;)

Grab an inorganic highschool/college level textbook, and read till your eyes bleed.

Then repeat.

edit: There's a SHITLOAD of eBook material out there. Don't bother buying books. Textbooks are expensive anyhow. I think SN had a eBook thread somewhere... ton of rapidshare links, etc.

Textbooks are expensive anyhow. I think SN had a eBook thread somewhere... ton of rapidshare links, etc.

This!

i recommend specifically recommend "Organic Chemistry for Dummies 2nd edition". Its nice and easy and will help you alot!

But if you need any books let me know and i will upload them :)

The Teaching Company (TTC) I know has an excellent lecture series titled "High School Chemistry" or something similar. It's pretty good for learning ions, acid/bases, stoichiometry, etc. Nothing too difficult for a beginner to understand. A torrent of it shouldn't be terribly hard to find... ;)

So i recently learned/realized that i personally know Uncle Fester, even got some of his books for free from his son, signed.

I am sorry to hear ;)

So I've been reading the books lately, and i realized this is something i could really get into. I have so much time on my hands, and I've been looking for something for so long to devote my time to, and I've finally found it.

Fester books are in no way a good starting point, he makes some reaction appear very simple and non dangerous when actually the risk are immense!

I am sorry to hear ;)



Fester books are in no way a good starting point, he makes some reaction appear very simple and non dangerous when actually the risk are immense!

is his son on the wrestling team at his highschool?

is his son on the wrestling team at his highschool?

haha, I'm pretty sure, why??

This!

i recommend specifically recommend "Organic Chemistry for Dummies 2nd edition". Its nice and easy and will help you alot!

But if you need any books let me know and i will upload them :)

Please upload that book.

I was just at borders and I flipped through science-chemistry section and I gotta say that for a complete beginner the "for dummies" series are worthless compared to the "for complete idiots" series. The chemistry for dummies does not even explain much theory at all, it just gives bunch of very detailed examples how chemistry is used in commercial industries, which I found interesting but not very essential to actually learning the concepts of chemistry. IDK about the organic chemistry for dummies because i looked at too many books that day so I might be confusing shit. But a high school or college intro chem txtbooks ought to help you out as well.

Actually 99% of all that you should know is avaliable online for free...

Get a chemistry set from a store or Ebay & play around with that.\

I gotta admit most of them aren't up to much, but it gives you an idea.
They just start & stop theres no flow with the experiments.

Plenty of info, they explain states of matter & cromotography etc.

I'd dissolve copper in acid,> copper sulphate, play with that etc etc, electroplate it back into pure copper.

Mix vinegar with baking soda or caustic soda & make sodium acetate. Do the heat thing with it.

Cromograph ink from a ballpoint pen.

http://www.totse.com/community/showthread.php?t=2108704

Hi all,

I know this is a bit of an old topic, but like the OP I've recently found a bit of a calling toward chemistry,

I do have a few questions that many of you will roll your eyes at but there were a few things I'm not quite clear on;


When doing extractions, using the grass as an example, does one simply pull up some grass clippings, crush/grind them, and immerse them in the water/butane/etc and wait for things to start absorbing into the water, then take the pulp thats left and continue with the iso/butane extraction?

Whats BHO?
Why are just those three solvents used?
Where can I find the reagents necessary?

Sorry if I sound like I'm asking all the questions and not doing any research on my own, but I've been reading for days and days and have learned a good deal about the theory behind everything, but theres still a lot more to go.

Thanks to anyone who's willing to help, I really appreciate it

1 Whats BHO?
2 Why are just those three solvents used?
3 Where can I find the reagents necessary?

1 BHO - Butane hash oil, an extract of weed (hash) using butane.

2 Butane, isopropanol, and water? They are all very different in how polar they are. Water is very polar, butane is pretty non-polar, and isopropanol is in between. They are also pretty safe compared to their alternatives, but always be safe.

3 For extractions? Well, asking for sources is against the rules, so I am going to assume you aren't asking for any specific website or store ;) Everything you need for simple extractions will be at the hardware or grocery store, but not always under the name you're looking for; for example, NaOH is lye and HCl is muriatic acid.

For a simple solvent extraction, you just soak the plant material in a solvent, remove the plant material, and separate the solvent from the product. The simplest (not always easiest) way to get rid of the solvent is via evaporation, but that can take a long long time and will give you the dirtiest product. Recrystallization (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recrystallization) is the most common way to retrieve your product. Recrystallizing at least 3 times is usually recommended for anything you are going to put in your body.