My son has an elementary school homework assignment where he's supposed to do
simple observations on a solid, liquid, and gas for seven days.  Solids: easy,
liquids: seven is probably exact the number that is easy to name.  Gases?  So
far, we've done air, boiling water, and the smoke from cooking fish.  But
that's about all I can think of without either getting dangerous or overly
egg-headed.

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gregjohn wrote:
> My son has an elementary school homework assignment where he's supposed to do
> simple observations on a solid, liquid, and gas for seven days.  Solids: easy,
> liquids: seven is probably exact the number that is easy to name.  Gases?  So
> far, we've done air, boiling water, and the smoke from cooking fish.  But
> that's about all I can think of without either getting dangerous or overly
> egg-headed.

Without breaking air down into oxygen, nitrogen and argon, how about:

Air
Steam
Methane (natural gas)
Butane (lighter gas)
Carbon dioxide (exhalation)
Carbon monoxide (faulty appliances - hopefully not!)
Argon (fluorescent lightbulbs)
Neon (the same)

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gregjohn wrote:
> My son has an elementary school homework assignment where he's supposed to do
> simple observations on a solid, liquid, and gas for seven days.  Solids: easy,
> liquids: seven is probably exact the number that is easy to name.  Gases?  So
> far, we've done air, boiling water, and the smoke from cooking fish.  But
> that's about all I can think of without either getting dangerous or overly
> egg-headed.

That's... quite hard.

Iron vapour, anyone?

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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And lo on Fri, 11 Jan 2008 12:50:56 -0000, gregjohn <pte### [at] yahoocom>  
did spake, saying:

> My son has an elementary school homework assignment where he's supposed  
> to do
> simple observations on a solid, liquid, and gas for seven days.  Solids:  
> easy,
> liquids: seven is probably exact the number that is easy to name.   
> Gases?  So
> far, we've done air, boiling water, and the smoke from cooking fish.  But
> that's about all I can think of without either getting dangerous or  
> overly
> egg-headed.

Nitrogen, Oxygen, Argon, Carbon Dioxide, Neon, Helium, Water Vapour; or  
what you called "air" :-P

Okay we'll count oxygen as air, unless anyone else can think of a simple  
experiment on nitrogen or a molecule thereof; you've also covered water  
vapour. Is smoke a gas, I thought it was airborne particulate? Anyway find  
an unopened fizzy drink bottle and open it - tada Carbon Dioxide. Do you  
have a (natural) gas fire/oven in your house, a barbecue with propane  
tanks? Your freezer contains a gas, sure you can't observe it directly,  
but you can see how it affects the temperature indirectly. How about the  
exhaust on your car, pumping out that carbon monoxide? It depends on what  
observations he's required to do.

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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> Nitrogen, Oxygen, Argon, Carbon Dioxide, Neon, Helium, Water Vapour; or 
> what you called "air" :-P

Dude... Argon??

> Is smoke a gas, I thought it was airborne particulate?

Depends on what kind. (It's like asking "what chemical is rock?")

Smoke from a wood fire is mostly soot particles. Burning oil produces 
that charactoristic blue vapour. And so on.

> Your freezer contains a gas, sure you can't observe it directly

Or rather, you can - but please don't! :-S

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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Phil Cook wrote:
> Water Vapour

<pedant>
Water vapour is suspended liquid droplets. Steam is the gas phase.
</pedant>


:-)

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"Invisible" <voi### [at] devnull> wrote in message
news:47877f70$1@news.povray.org...
> > Nitrogen, Oxygen, Argon, Carbon Dioxide, Neon, Helium, Water Vapour; or
> > what you called "air" :-P
>
> Dude... Argon??

Yes. Not much, but it's there. In fact, it's the most common noble gas, more
prevelent than neon or helium

Ar. Atomic number 18. Most common isotope: Argon-40

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Gail Shaw wrote:

>> Dude... Argon??
> 
> Yes. Not much, but it's there. In fact, it's the most common noble gas, more
> prevelent than neon or helium

Interesting. I was under the impression that *all* noble gasses are 
extremely rare...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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Bill Pragnell wrote:

> <pedant>
> Water vapour is suspended liquid droplets. Steam is the gas phase.
> </pedant>
> 
> :-)

Um... isn't that the other way round?

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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Bill Pragnell <bil### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
> Phil Cook wrote:
> > Water Vapour
>
> <pedant>
> Water vapour is suspended liquid droplets. Steam is the gas phase.
> </pedant>
>


Water vapour is the gas phase.  Steam is the gas phase.

What you see above a boiling pot, what some folks call "steam", is suspended
liquid droplets.


And to everyone who said CO2 or Ar, that's not something you can observe in your
house.  It's about observation of gaseous substances, not merely naming off
elements a textbook will tell you might be present.

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