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Bismuth is pretty
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@BowsacNoodle
It's impossible those crystals formed on their own, and no, we didn't consult a chemist. Why would we do that?
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@pepsi_man @BowsacNoodle It’s pretty difficult to get large single-crystals; it has to sit perfectly still and cool off at the exact right rate. Not easy to do in a kitchen !
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@pepsi_man @KingOfWhiteAmerica Buy a bunch of cheap offbrand Pepto bismal and do home chemistry in a junk pan you plan to throw away. This was probably made in some guy's kitchen.
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@KingOfWhiteAmerica @BowsacNoodle
So you're telling me there's no way for humans to replicate this?
👽 👾 :itsaliens:
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@pepsi_man @BowsacNoodle > … replicate …
“Replicate” is a pretty strong word. One *could* get comparable results under vacuum, on an accurate and well-controlled hotplate, on a decent anti-seismic table. This one is pretty special though, representative of a small percentage of the best samples.
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@KingOfWhiteAmerica @pepsi_man I didn't realize it would be THAT tough. I was thinking boil then hit with a heat gun to control cooling.
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@BowsacNoodle @pepsi_man You can definitely get nice looking samples that way, don’t get me wrong; but it’ll be something more like this:
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@KingOfWhiteAmerica @pepsi_man Björg Cubism
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@BowsacNoodle @KingOfWhiteAmerica
This is now a chemistry autism thread.
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@pepsi_man @KingOfWhiteAmerica I was looking up cool crystals to make at home and one of the suggestions was Borax. They showed these beautiful blue-green crystals and said to use pipe cleaners to grow them like this.
>While the borax crystals are clear, they will appear colored due to the colors of the pipe cleaners shining through.
😒
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@BowsacNoodle @KingOfWhiteAmerica
Can you get a clear borax crystal and use it as a seed for new crystals; then just ditch the pipe cleaners all together?
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@pepsi_man @KingOfWhiteAmerica You probably could just use a grain of sand or fishing line or something for all I know. Sometimes a frozen metal skewer or piece of cutlery will work to start them.
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@KingOfWhiteAmerica @BowsacNoodle
I assume temperature control is everything in that situation.
If your temp drops too quickly, you start getting a lot of small crystals, and your super-saturated solution would become less saturated.
I'm not a chemist, so take that with a grain of salt.
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@BowsacNoodle @pepsi_man Beyond rock candy, I don’t have much crystal growing experience in aqueous solution. I’d be inclined to guess that a clear borax seed crystal dropped into supersaturated solution would precipitate just fine - but I’m generally less certain about how to generate large & clear monocrystals in that sort of medium; zero experience.
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@pepsi_man @KingOfWhiteAmerica Im guessing borax doesn't make large crystals on its own since they suggested a pipe cleaner. That's like maximum surface area.
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@UnityOstara @pepsi_man @KingOfWhiteAmerica Ouch! I could see that hurting. That stuff is really good for cleaning certain things and killing ants though. I use it in my laundry detergent or with some simple syrup for a perfect ant bait (100% effective total ant colony death).
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@BowsacNoodle @pepsi_man @KingOfWhiteAmerica Borax: were like soap if soap was salt! The only time I had to use the emergency eye washer was after cleaning up after a shift and getting that in my eyes. Painful and embarrassing.
BowserNoodle ☦️
pepsi_man
☦️KingOfWhiteAmerica☦️
UnityOstara
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