Melissa: 00:09

Hey. Hey. I'm Melissa.

Jam: 00:11

I'm Jam.

Melissa: 00:11

And I'm a chemist.

Jam: 00:12

And I'm not.

Melissa: 00:13

And welcome to chemistry free life.

Jam: 00:15

The podcast helps you understand the chemistry of your everyday life.

Melissa: 00:19

Okay, Jam. So we're here for smoke detectors part 2.

Jam: 00:22

Okay. Right.

Melissa: 00:23

And I think it's gonna be fun. It's gonna be a quicker episode.

Jam: 00:26

Okay.

Melissa: 00:27

But, before we get into that, I want to address the fact that we are now an audiovisual podcast.

Jam: 00:35

Correct.

Melissa: 00:36

Not just an audio audio podcast.

Jam: 00:39

Right. And we we did that for the 1st smoke takers episode as well as our q and r

Melissa: 00:44

Mhmm.

Jam: 00:44

Getting used to it, Working out some of the kinks a little bit

Melissa: 00:47

Yeah.

Jam: 00:47

And stuff, but it's gonna mean some changes for you listeners.

Melissa: 00:51

Yeah. So we might reference things that are visual, like The cute flower hat I'm wearing today?

Jam: 00:57

We just we did that sometimes too before where I'd like

Melissa: 00:59

That's true.

Jam: 00:59

Make a weird gesture with my hands, and then you'd be like, for those listening, he is doing this weird thing with his hands or whatever.

Melissa: 01:06

But now you could see it in the flesh.

Jam: 01:07

Yeah.

Melissa: 01:09

Also, this cute hat was a birthday present from Jam and his wife. So If you wanna see it, you could just go to the YouTube channel now. Yeah. But also, I think that means there's gonna be some changes in terms of We're not going to edit out every little cough or sneeze. It's gonna be more like a live show.

Jam: 01:25

Correct. Yeah. We want the Audio version podcast and the video version podcast be exactly the same in every way except that, you know, one's video and audio. And so Right. Same length, You know, same episode, and people just get to pick which way they prefer.

Jam: 01:40

But one of the things we've always done is cut out, like, coughs and stuff And just things that you know, it's it's for y'all's sake and whatnot. But to keep things consistent in our workflow the same, We're not gonna, you know, have tons of jump cuts of every cough that ever happens in the video because that would be probably pretty annoying, honestly, if it kept, like, cutting out random little bits and stuff. And so in the audio, there may be an occasional cough or sniffle or whatever, and, that'll be a little bit of adjustment for you guys that are audio folks, but I don't think it'll be crazy, and, hopefully, you won't be in a with us.

Melissa: 02:17

Yeah. Hopefully not. It's just the way I think of it is like, oh, now we're doing a live show sort of, quote, unquote, live. So you get the raw and unedited Coughs and sneezes that you would miss out in a in a not right live show.

Jam: 02:31

Right. And we always were pretty minimal on the editing. Like, I'm sure there's some podcasts that Do way more than we do. Mhmm. But we have always done, some of it and stuff.

Jam: 02:41

So that'll be a little bit of a different feel, but, yeah, getting a live an unfiltered, for the most part, kinda deal. Yeah. But, also, we hope you guys like it. We hope you guys like the the option for YouTube and stuff. And if you've got thoughts and and things so far, let us know.

Jam: 02:56

Love to hear.

Melissa: 02:57

We love to hear feedback, and we always want to keep The show improving, which is why we're trying to do it on YouTube video anyway.

Jam: 03:03

So Yep.

Melissa: 03:04

If you wanna see the show, you can check us out at youtube.com/ At chem for your life.

Jam: 03:10

Right.

Melissa: 03:11

Right. Okay. So are you ready for smoke alarms or smoke detectors part 2?

Jam: 03:15

I am ready.

Melissa: 03:16

Me too. Just I mentioned this in the last episode, but I just wanna mention this again. There were not a lot of, Like, peer reviewed journal resources about this. Yeah. A lot more of it came from government resources.

Melissa: 03:29

So, like, The National Fire Protection Agency, the NFPA was 1, and NIST, which is the National Institute of Standards and Technology, is another one. Okay. So I did more government resources than chemistry resources, but the chemistry checks out. Like, what they're saying makes sense to me Okay. As a chemist.

Melissa: 03:48

So That's why I was like, well, I I trust this website. And I think because it's not chemists aren't researching how smoke detectors work. There's not a lot of that.

Jam: 03:58

Right. Right. Yeah. That's interesting. And it's like, can we trust the government?

Jam: 04:02

You know? It really brings up the question.

Melissa: 04:04

I have lots of questions about what happens in the government, but that's not what we're talking about today. Today, we're talking about smoke detectors and those questions.

Jam: 04:13

Right. Right. Right.

Melissa: 04:13

That I have answers to. Right. Okay. So We talked about the 2 types of smoke detectors last episode. Do you remember that?

Jam: 04:23

Yes. I do.

Melissa: 04:24

Okay. What do you do you remember about the 2 different types?

Jam: 04:28

I remember that the type we talked about last time we recorded was the radioactive Eye on connecting the charges, that kind of stuff.

Melissa: 04:42

Yep.

Jam: 04:42

And smoke interrupts a connection, and that's how it knows smoke's there.

Melissa: 04:47

Yes.

Jam: 04:47

And I remember you telling me a little hint about what the other kind was Mhmm. And I don't remember.

Melissa: 04:53

That's okay. Maybe our listeners Probably don't either.

Jam: 04:56

Yeah. Probably not.

Melissa: 04:57

So the other one is called photoelectric, and it uses light. It's light sensing instead of charge sensing.

Jam: 05:03

Okay. Cool.

Melissa: 05:04

But there are very similar. There's a few key differences. I kind of think of this one being the inverse of the other one. You'll see what I mean.

Jam: 05:10

Okay.

Melissa: 05:11

But, essentially, it uses the principle of a light source and a light sensor. And this is a good chemistry lesson because chemists Actually use this in instrumentation a lot. Okay. So you used to work at a pool store.

Jam: 05:24

I did. Yes.

Melissa: 05:25

I'm just you that for the 1st time now. Just kidding.

Jam: 05:28

Your idea?

Melissa: 05:29

And you used to put a vial of something with clear sides down into a sensor, And it shone light through it.

Jam: 05:36

Yes. Yes. This has come up before, but I can't remember what episode. But, yeah, it's, like, been related to

Melissa: 05:41

each one?

Jam: 05:42

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Melissa: 05:44

And I feel like that, on that one, it put the light through. That tell you the concentration of the Of what was in the water, or what did it tell you? Do you remember?

Jam: 05:54

Yeah. It told it told us a bunch of things. So I would actually test, like, for every person's pool water I tested, it was, like, 5 different vials. Okay. And I'd, like, popped the, like, foil thing and squirt a little bit of water into all of them.

Jam: 06:06

They told us pH, the concentration of chlorine Mhmm. The, can't remember. There were There are multiple things. I guess

Melissa: 06:18

Was there maybe, like, an absorption?

Jam: 06:20

Maybe so. Like, sort of how saturated the stuff the water currently was. Mhmm. Yeah. I think there was one that that may be tested for, like, the, amount of potential, like, Growth in microbes were could be in it.

Jam: 06:36

Like, how how close are you to having an algae fest tomorrow?

Melissa: 06:41

An algae fest?

Jam: 06:41

But I can't remember. I remember

Melissa: 06:42

there being,

Jam: 06:43

like, 5.

Melissa: 06:43

And our apartment has been an algae fest. I think I showed you pictures. It's like lime green some days that I'm like, okay. Yeah. That's analogy fast if I've ever seen 1.

Melissa: 06:53

Okay. So that makes sense to me, especially the concentration one or the the pH because what essentially I used a lot whenever I was doing research in the organic chemistry lab is we worked with highly colored molecules. Mhmm. And you if you had them, they had to be diluted to a certain level so that the light could pass through them. But when the light passed through them and then it went over to So you have, like, a little vial.

Melissa: 07:18

The light passes through and hits the sensor. That light, even though it might not look changed, is changed for passing through this, material.

Jam: 07:26

Okay.

Melissa: 07:26

And we could see what wavelengths of the light had been absorbed by the molecules versus which ones we're able to sort of pass through.

Jam: 07:34

Got it.

Melissa: 07:34

And that's if something's, you know, pretty dilute. But we're using a different type a different feature of light in our fire, or sorry, in our smoke detectors. And that's in this case, the light won't pass through something, and instead, it could be deflected off.

Jam: 07:53

Okay.

Melissa: 07:53

So light could either pass through things and it may be absorbed or light will be reflected or deflected, you know Right. Depending on how you kinda wanna think about that. So that's a little bit of chemistry background for you.

Jam: 08:06

Okay.

Melissa: 08:06

Now in this smoke detector, It has in photoelectric, specifically spoke detector, it has a beam of light shining unbroken. And, actually, instead of this sensor being, right on where the light shines, like it usually is in instrumentation, the light's a little off.

Jam: 08:25

Okay.

Melissa: 08:26

So maybe it's at an angle. Right? And as long as the light is not interrupted by anything and it doesn't hit the sensor, no alarm happen.

Jam: 08:37

Okay.

Melissa: 08:38

But if smoke particles, especially the light or white colored ashes, start to enter into the smoke detector, Those are relatively large, and they will start to deflect the light and make it to where it hits the sensor. So instead of the light coming and just Being uninterrupted, the light will hit a particle

Jam: 08:59

Oh.

Melissa: 08:59

And go down to where the sensor is or up or wherever the sensor is located. Okay. Goes off at an angle. And The light will be scattered all over the place, so it doesn't just go to the sensor. But if enough light hits the sensor for it to realize that there's something happening, that's when the alarm sounds.

Jam: 09:17

Okay.

Melissa: 09:18

To the other one, the smoke particles interrupt the flow of charge, and that's when the alarm sounds.

Jam: 09:22

Mhmm.

Melissa: 09:23

In this one, the smoke particles interrupt the flow of light, and they diffract or not diffract. Sorry. Deflect the light over into the sensor. And once the sensor Detects that light, then the alarm sounds.

Jam: 09:37

Okay.

Melissa: 09:37

So you see the difference there?

Jam: 09:39

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Melissa: 09:40

It's similar ish except instead of breaking a current, it's Hitting the sensor.

Jam: 09:44

Yeah. It's yeah. It's interesting. I would have assumed, I think you just asked me to guess that the It would work similarly, but just with light, but that it would be like, if the sensor stops detecting the light

Melissa: 09:56

Yes.

Jam: 09:56

Then it does that. But it's interesting that they made Choice to do the other way around. I'm sure there was good reason.

Melissa: 10:02

And

Jam: 10:02

maybe it's more reliable or something like that. But

Melissa: 10:04

I also wondered if there are ones where it's like a constant stream of light and does it get interrupted, but I wonder if the beam is is too large. You know? Maybe it would be hard to interrupt as much or maybe Yeah. I don't know. I wondered I wondered about that same thing as why they went that route.

Melissa: 10:22

And if there's anybody in it's probably an engineer, probably Like somebody like my husband. If you know how smoke detectors work, hit us up. Why do they design them that way? I'd love to know. Yeah.

Melissa: 10:35

Or if there are some that are the uninterrupted beam of light and then the particles interrupt it. Yeah. So that's a quick little I told you it's gonna be quick.

Jam: 10:44

Yeah.

Melissa: 10:45

About how photoelectric fire detectors work. Do you wanna try to to summarize that back to me?

Jam: 10:52

Yes. So in general, I mean, we started off in the place of just talking about how in chemistry, it's actually a common thing to Try to use light in the way light behaves as it hits different things to detect presence of something or the change of something or, you know, something dissolved in something else, whatever. And the way that the smoke detectors use it in this way is actually, Banking on the fact that when smoke is present, it will actually deflect light, into a sensor

Melissa: 11:28

Mhmm.

Jam: 11:28

Because the the different molecules and particles that are in smoke will start to mess with it, interrupt that beam a light, and it actually can bounce off Right. And and direct it into a sensor that is there as able to detect light Mhmm. And is ready to sound the alarm once it does. But that just the the particles and molecules in our air, without smoke seem not to do that Right. In this way.

Jam: 11:56

And and a lot

Melissa: 11:57

of large.

Jam: 11:58

Not as large. And they allow the the beam of light to Keep going where it's intended to go and not hit the sensor.

Melissa: 12:07

Right.

Jam: 12:07

Okay.

Melissa: 12:08

I will say we've had some construction, going on in our apartment. Uh-huh. And at one point, I guess, the shop vac wasn't securely on when they vacuumed, and so a bunch of particles just went all over the place. Uh-huh. And that definitely did set off the smoke detectors.

Melissa: 12:24

Oh. So and for the first time, detector has been set off accidentally. You know? I was just like, I wonder if that's probably, The photoelectric versus the oh, sorry. I wonder that's probably the photoelectric versus the

Jam: 12:40

Yeah.

Melissa: 12:41

Ionizing because these are the, you know, a type of particle that could interrupt it, which That brings me to my fun fact.

Jam: 12:50

Okay. Yes. I'm ready.

Melissa: 12:52

So we talked about in the last one, you're like, oh, which Which smoke detector is better? I don't have a smoke detector in any of my house until all the way down the hallway.

Jam: 13:01

Right. Right. Which I still have not Made a decision about because I wanted to hear both of these Mhmm. Before I bought a smoke detector, but I need to buy 1, 2, 3. I don't know.

Jam: 13:11

Who knows? Several, probably.

Melissa: 13:13

This is how I reached the conclusion that I think my smoke detector is photoelectric. Okay. Okay. So according to the NFPA, PA, that's the National Fire Protection Agency. Photoelectric smoke detectors are typically more sensitive to smoldering fires, Which produce more, white soot

Jam: 13:36

Okay.

Melissa: 13:37

While Ionizing is more sensitive to flaming fire. So according to NIST, the National Institute of Standard and Technology, Flaming fires, like the ones that ionizing are more sensitive to, tend to produce small black soot particles. Okay. And they are produced, they're produced more quickly and in greater number, so they're able to interrupt that current from between the plates more rapidly than smoldering fires.

Jam: 14:07

Yeah.

Melissa: 14:07

While smoldering fires, produces more particles that are larger in size and white or light colored. And so because they're white or light colored, they're more reflective

Jam: 14:19

Okay.

Melissa: 14:19

Of the light. And so those will be detected and deflect the light or reflect the light more easily onto the sensor.

Jam: 14:28

Got it. Okay.

Melissa: 14:28

So because it was Drywall, which is white or light colored in large particles, I assumed oh, I wonder if we have a photoelectric fire detector because That just went off so easily.

Jam: 14:42

Yeah. Do were you able to confirm or just

Melissa: 14:44

I don't know how to confirm.

Jam: 14:46

Yeah. I mean, unless you could, like,

Melissa: 14:57

about what the EPA says about tampering with them. But I will say because the some the sorry. Because some Smoke detectors are more sensitive to 1 fire, and the other are more sensitive to the other type of fire. Actually, many smoke detectors have both Kinds of sensing in them.

Jam: 15:14

Oh, that's smart.

Melissa: 15:15

It may be that I have a combo pack.

Jam: 15:18

Right. Okay.

Melissa: 15:19

Or my apartment building's a little bit old, so I could see it being Just 1 or the other.

Jam: 15:24

Right. Right.

Melissa: 15:24

But it definitely works. It's very sensitive.

Jam: 15:27

Interesting.

Melissa: 15:28

So, you may be able to purchase That kind of fire detector or smoke detector for your home

Jam: 15:35

Right.

Melissa: 15:35

So that it can detect both different kinds of fires.

Jam: 15:38

That sounds pretty smart. I'm guessing they recommend that Based on the fact that they create them now, that has both in there

Melissa: 15:44

Yeah.

Jam: 15:44

Sounds like a way of saying, hey. This would be best for you.

Melissa: 15:47

Hey. Do that. Yeah. And according to the EPA, you should not tamper with or damage your smoke detector because the ionizing smoke Detectors do have radiation in them, so they're safe as long as you don't tamper with them. They also said they confirmed that it was the alpha particles, which That's what I thought.

Melissa: 16:06

But remember, I was kind of like

Jam: 16:07

Oh, yeah.

Melissa: 16:08

One place said gamma. I have I'm not really sure.

Jam: 16:10

Right.

Melissa: 16:11

Alpha particles are larger. They're closer to the size of an atom and not as small as some other radiation. So they really can be contained easily with a barrier, and that's why the ionizing smoke detectors are generally regarded as safe.

Jam: 16:24

Got it.

Melissa: 16:24

Okay. Don't wanna, like, you know, lick them or, you know, don't damage them. Don't tamper with them. Leave them on the ceiling and replace them When they have expired and

Jam: 16:35

Got it.

Melissa: 16:35

Keep the batteries up to date, and you'll be good.

Jam: 16:37

Got it. Okay. Cool. Cool.

Melissa: 16:39

Okay. So Do you does that answer all your questions about smoke detectors?

Jam: 16:43

I think so. I I thought of a fun fact or not a fun fact, but something that is related, to this one, the light what'd you call it again? Photoelectric. Photoelectric. I was just thinking about the fact that Our Roomba, we have one of those little robot vacuums, and I slowly discovered the way it can tell when it's Full Mhmm.

Jam: 17:06

Is actually similar. It says not research, but this is based on, like, a lot of trial and error

Melissa: 17:11

Uh-huh.

Jam: 17:12

Is that We had, you know, a renovation in our house happened in the summer.

Melissa: 17:16

Mhmm.

Jam: 17:17

And it was a lot of dust going on. And I discovered that ever since then, I Our Roomba was really overreactive thinking it was always full. I had a really hard time getting it to change, and, like, the whole thing got pretty dusty. That actually have a little window pointing to each other. It's pretty easy to miss.

Jam: 17:43

And they were both

Melissa: 17:44

Like,

Jam: 17:44

just covered in dust. So I wiped those off. So it might it might be the opposite thing where actually Right. The beam needs to see you know, hit the sensor. If it doesn't, then it says it's full.

Melissa: 17:56

Yeah.

Jam: 17:57

But I wipe those off, and ever since then, it's been so much better.

Melissa: 18:00

You know that made me think there's also, like, Garage door openers?

Jam: 18:04

Yes.

Melissa: 18:04

They often have that safety feature on the bottom where if the the beam of light gets Broken, it stops. So I wonder if that's similar

Jam: 18:12

to you. It's gotta be similar. Yeah. That's just funny because I kept wondering, like, there was no indicator, no clear thing says this is where the sensor is, Probably because Right. Most people don't really need to know, and they'd rather use empty the bin, not like Right.

Jam: 18:24

Game the system or whatever. But I there's so many parts of the Roomba I was looking at, and I was like, Which part is telling? Which where is the smart thingy that's

Melissa: 18:32

Look at you knows engineering that situation.

Jam: 18:34

But it just took me a long time. I'm sure smart people would've figured it out faster.

Melissa: 18:37

I wonder if you had already learned about smoke detectors if you would've figured that out faster.

Jam: 18:42

I bet I would have.

Melissa: 18:43

Because you're like, I know something else that Yeah. It's interrupted by particles. Yeah.

Jam: 18:48

And I wouldn't have thought a sort of sort of light sense like that would have been the thing. Yeah. I would have thought Something else. I don't know what I thought, but it just doing occur have occurred to me for that to be the main way to do it. But it makes total sense now that I think about it.

Melissa: 19:02

I also think the Roomba Probably makes a lot of use of light and light sensing to help it not run into things.

Jam: 19:08

Yeah. Totally. That's my guess.

Melissa: 19:10

Yeah. Okay. So next thing I wanted to shift gears to because that's a really short that's a shorty.

Jam: 19:17

Right.

Melissa: 19:17

Right. I promise to also oh, My bad. I just keep hitting the mic. I promise to also teach you a little bit about those fire sprinklers. Oh, yes.

Melissa: 19:27

It's not just smoke alarms. It's more like fire emergency Yeah. Responding equipment. Yeah. So do you have any idea how those sprinklers work?

Jam: 19:37

I do have an idea Oh, okay. No idea if it's accurate or not.

Melissa: 19:41

Okay.

Jam: 19:41

But here's what I remember hearing from someone at some point. I can't remember where.

Melissa: 19:47

This is exciting.

Jam: 19:48

Is that I know that there are, like they're not just connected to, like, straight up, Running water all the time. Mhmm. Like, they have maybe they are, but, like, there's water just hanging out in there ready to go. Mhmm. And what I remember hearing was that there's something that's sort of holding the spring car closed That melts at a very low temperature.

Jam: 20:15

And then when it's gone, then the thing can drop down, and the water can just start coming out. So that it's, like, There's no there's there's there's there's there's fewer smart things. Uh-huh. Something like that, it probably is better. And so it's a good fail safe for, like, it's hot enough, the sprinkler is turning on whether

Melissa: 20:32

or the other.

Jam: 20:33

One way or another, water's coming out of this thing. But I also heard that the water can get super gross in those because it's, like, Just hanging out for a long time. So does a good job of

Melissa: 20:41

That makes sense.

Jam: 20:42

Putting out the water, but or with the fire. Putting out the water. I

Melissa: 20:46

mean, it puts Out water onto the vine. Yeah.

Jam: 20:49

Is is that accurate?

Melissa: 20:51

Okay. That is that is very accurate. Nice. But There's actually a whole other type that you missed.

Jam: 20:56

Okay. Cool. Yeah. I didn't know about that.

Melissa: 20:57

The idea that's correct. Is there's already so when you have those sprinklers, we have 1 in our apartment because building. It's usually in commercial buildings, not in homes.

Jam: 21:05

Right.

Melissa: 21:06

And so they'll have those sprinklers, and they are already connected to the waterline. You know, they have pipes that are full of water. And it reminds you of, you know, when you just, like, when you have a water hose and you just Break the line, you know, to keep it. That's kind of what's happening all the time in our, sprinkler system is there's basically just a plug that's not letting the water out. And I'm assuming because the water's not coming out, no more water is flowing through it, so the water just stays there ready to go.

Melissa: 21:38

Yeah. That's another one of those questions for plumbers that we have. If there's a master plumber out there, we'd love to hear about it. So They do have the water already, like, ready to go, but it's just the it's almost like the faucet's turned off like you said. It's got a plug in it, And the plug is heat sensitive.

Jam: 21:57

Okay.

Melissa: 21:57

And like you said, one of them is a metal or a mixture of metals that melts at a very low, temperature low enough. It's like I think it was 158 or something like that, Fahrenheit, I think. But I didn't get into the details because I wanted this to be more of, like, a quick fun fact. Yeah. But it does.

Melissa: 22:19

So the plug is held in by either some metal that will melt and the plug is removed and, essentially, then the water can flow. There's one other type of plug that is not metal that melts

Jam: 22:32

Mhmm.

Melissa: 22:33

But it is something that somehow fails with heat. Can you think of what it might be?

Jam: 22:38

Something that's not metal

Melissa: 22:40

Mhmm.

Jam: 22:41

That fails with heat. That uses chemistry.

Melissa: 22:50

And listeners at home or watchers at home. Also, you can think about it. Is there something that would break or stop working if It was a certain temperature.

Jam: 23:06

Dang. That's tough.

Melissa: 23:08

Or maybe even something that would explode.

Jam: 23:11

Oh.

Melissa: 23:18

Did we just tell you?

Jam: 23:19

I guess so. I think it would explode. Woah.

Melissa: 23:21

This makes me think of, when I was in my organic chemistry lab in college. So I was Probably 20, and I'm now 32. So that just tells you how this has stuck in my mind. I don't remember conversations that happened last week, but this is in my mind. Uh-huh.

Melissa: 23:39

Somebody asked, do we need to heat this up with the lid on or off? I'm pretty sure I've told this story

Jam: 23:42

before. Yes.

Melissa: 23:43

And he said, if you heat a closed container, That's a bomb.

Jam: 23:47

Yeah.

Melissa: 23:48

And he said it so seriously, and then he just walked away. So he didn't answer them. He just said if you leave that lid on, it'll explode. Uh-huh. That's basically what happens in sprinklers.

Melissa: 23:58

K. So you have a glass container. It's sometimes called an ampule Filled with liquid. K. And the liquid, as it's heated up, what happens when you put heat into liquid?

Jam: 24:13

The molecules get excited

Melissa: 24:15

Mhmm.

Jam: 24:15

And they spread out more. Mhmm. They have more energy. They're spreading out, and they wanna take up more space than they maybe have in this case.

Melissa: 24:22

Mhmm. Yep. If they're in a closed container, they're trying to spread out. They eventually will put enough pressure on that container that it will explode.

Jam: 24:30

Okay. Got it.

Melissa: 24:31

And so when that happens, basically, the the glass ampule is the plug or is keeping the plug in place. The glass ampule will explode because of the thermal expansion of the liquid, which we first talked about in the sea level rise episode

Jam: 24:45

Right.

Melissa: 24:45

With the other doctor, Collini. Yes. And then the water is free to flow.

Jam: 24:51

Yeah. Wow. Ding, that's crazy.

Melissa: 24:53

Science.

Jam: 24:54

As you after you started talking, I was thinking like, oh, I wonder if there's a gas that could be That would start to but, like, yeah, liquid expanding mixed

Melissa: 25:01

I wondered if it was a gas too, but I think probably gases are already so Free.

Jam: 25:08

Right. Right.

Melissa: 25:09

That having the liquid that wants to expand more so, I think because it's, you know, trying to get to a gaseous state is more effective.

Jam: 25:17

Do you remember, the little song that our friend Justin sort of made from that saying? We first talked about the heat if you heat a closed container, it's a bomb thing. One of our friends named Justin put it to the, like, tune of if you're happy and you know it?

Melissa: 25:36

If you heat a closed container, that's a bomb. Yeah. I do remember that. Yes. It's sometimes

Jam: 25:40

it pops into my head when I'm, like, placing the microwave or something like that. He put and and think he said if you if you heat a closed container, you'll be cleaning it up later. If you heat a closed container, it's a bomb.

Melissa: 25:50

I don't remember. There's hardly, it's, like, somewhere in my brain, but I don't really remember that verse.

Jam: 25:55

The perfect syllables. It's, like, perfect. And he

Melissa: 25:58

just so good.

Jam: 25:59

Put together, and it's great. So but also is nice because it's kinda the nice thing to remember. It's like a good

Melissa: 26:04

so good.

Jam: 26:05

Yeah. Thing to have, like, taught in your brain and

Melissa: 26:09

So sing the whole thing?

Jam: 26:10

If you heat a closed container, it's a bomb. If you heat a closed container, it's a bomb. If you heat a closed container, you'll be cleaning it up later. If you heat a closed container, it's a bomb.

Melissa: 26:20

That's so good.

Jam: 26:21

That is happy and you know it. Right? Isn't it?

Melissa: 26:23

If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands.

Jam: 26:25

Yeah. I guess that's true. Yeah. Pretty close. Yeah.

Jam: 26:27

Yeah. Anyway, Justin, thanks for doing that.

Melissa: 26:29

That is really good, Justin. I'm really impressed.

Jam: 26:32

That he typed that on Twitter, and I think he I don't remember what he what he said, but The tune was very obvious from the beginning Right. When he started, like, doing the syllables or whatever.

Melissa: 26:42

Oh my gosh. I love that.

Jam: 26:43

But that's been years ago now At this point

Melissa: 26:45

Well, thanks, Justin, because that will help you remember how a little bomb goes off in your fire sprinklers. Yes. Yes.

Jam: 26:53

But for good reason so they can then put out a fire.

Melissa: 26:56

So they could put out

Jam: 26:57

a fire.

Melissa: 26:57

Yeah. So that's really cool. Thanks. I loved that. I'm glad you brought that up into my brain.

Melissa: 27:03

Okay. So that that's your lesson on fire safety

Jam: 27:07

Okay.

Melissa: 27:07

And how Fire safety instruments do their job.

Jam: 27:10

Nice. I love it. I'm I'm very excited to now go and buy some, smoke detectors.

Melissa: 27:16

I'm so glad. Yeah. And you can do it you can, in an informed way, say that you want both, photoelectric and ionization.

Jam: 27:24

Yes.

Melissa: 27:25

I like ionizing better, but I think, technically, it's ionization.

Jam: 27:29

Mhmm. Okay.

Melissa: 27:30

It doesn't roll off the tongue as well.

Jam: 27:31

Yeah. A 100%.

Melissa: 27:32

But so now you can now you know you can go and ask.

Jam: 27:35

Nice. Nice. Excellent.

Melissa: 27:37

So that's fun. And speaking of fun things, you do anything fun this week?

Jam: 27:41

I did do something fun this week. I guess I actually did a few fun things.

Melissa: 27:45

Me

Jam: 27:45

too. The one that I thought I had ahead of time that I wanted to share Was just, a some of our mutual friends, Matt and Danielle

Melissa: 27:55

Mhmm.

Jam: 27:56

Who used to live here in the town we live in in Denton and have been in a different town about, like, you know, 45, 50 minutes away for about, like, yeah, for about, like, the past, What? Like, 4 years, I might that now? Think

Melissa: 28:08

so. It's been a while.

Jam: 28:10

We both have kids, you know, and so it's also just kind of hard to get time to hang And far enough away where you don't it's not convenient, but Yeah. We finally got to hang out with them, and their oldest daughter and our oldest son are Really close in age, about 2 months apart.

Melissa: 28:26

There's really cute pictures.

Jam: 28:27

Yes. And so it was just fun for them to play and, you know, interact and stuff like that. And The last time we did that, there was a lot of tears about sharing toys and sharing the slide and stuff. This time, it went a lot more smoothly.

Melissa: 28:40

Good.

Jam: 28:41

And so that was just a lot of fun. And then, I don't know. It's just like those kinds of things are always a treat. And you kinda have this realization like, oh, remember when I was a kid? And I play with, like, my parents' like, friends' kids or whatever.

Jam: 28:54

Yeah. You kinda have this realization like, oh, I'm the parent now, And I'm getting to hang out with friends of mine I haven't caught up with in a while, and Yes. Our kids are playing.

Melissa: 29:03

Yeah. You know who I try not to be is that Weird friend who's like, I remember you in diapers, and you're like, I have no idea who you are. You know? Like, you're just some lady my parents know. Don't talk to me like you know me.

Melissa: 29:15

That's what I'm in danger of being now. So I'm I'm in danger of being the weird friend, not, like, with your kids, but With kids that I knew when they were younger, and then I moved to to our town, and they're still over in Plano or wherever

Jam: 29:28

Yeah.

Melissa: 29:29

Then then I'm at risk. I always have to stop myself from saying that, but it's a real impulse.

Jam: 29:33

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's tough. I think we're all kinda at risk of that, and, you know, The shout out to, is kind of related to to well, I'll just say it.

Jam: 29:54

It was we're in progress, Mason and I on doing some improvements to our coffee station. Oh. You know? And so we've been working on that. It's not quite done yet, but Our coffee roasting station is undergoing some, some good improvements and some

Melissa: 30:10

Some good with an e.

Jam: 30:11

Yes. Good with an e. Good coffee. Our coffee company is good.coffee, g o o d e dot coffee. We've had about it before, but we have gotten to a point now where we can, like, upgrade the area a little bit and make our workstation kinda better.

Jam: 30:26

So you obviously know about that. But that's been a fun project, and also it's kinda hard for Based on how to find usual time to work on it, but we did that the other night, which also got to coincide with hanging out with you guys, which was another good thing I wanted to share about. So

Melissa: 30:40

So you just got to hang out with a lot of friends. That's your fun thing.

Jam: 30:43

Yeah. Mhmm. Yeah.

Melissa: 30:44

Well, you kinda stole that because I was gonna say it was my birthday this weekend. Mhmm. And we kicked off the birthday festivities with a coffee hour that we do with our, hbonder Patreons.

Jam: 30:55

Yes.

Melissa: 30:56

And then Jam and I and his wife and my husband all got dinner and just hung out and talked, and it was really fun. It it was a really good way to Start off the weekend. Yeah. And then the next day, I get to sleep in and do whatever I want.

Jam: 31:11

Heck yeah.

Melissa: 31:12

Some people came to visit me, and then some other people took charged and decided to throw me a 32nd birthday party for, for my Lorelei Gilmore Because that's how old Lorelei Gilmore was at the beginning of Gilmore Girls, which I remember watching when I was younger than than Rory was. So it's just weird to think.

Jam: 31:31

Oh, yeah.

Melissa: 31:32

Like, for my 15th birthday or 14th birthday, I'm pretty sure I got a season of Gilmore Girls. And now I'm as old as the mom. You know?

Jam: 31:40

Yeah. That's crazy.

Melissa: 31:41

But so it's Gilmore Girls theme. It was really cute. 1 of our friends dressed up as Luke Danes, which was hilarious. There's a woman, and she pulled it off so well.

Jam: 31:49

Yeah. Didn't know how the character was, but at one point, they played an episode, and she stood in front of it. And I was like, oh, okay. Yep. Nailed it.

Melissa: 31:55

It was so good. So it was just a really fun weekend. And, yeah, I had a great time. I got to eat good food. I got to see people I loved.

Melissa: 32:05

And, yeah, it was just so chill, and I've been so busy this year that I think that's one of the 1st weekends I've had nothing that I had to do. You know? I got to do whatever I wanted that weekend.

Jam: 32:16

That's great.

Melissa: 32:17

Yeah. That was really fun.

Jam: 32:18

What if I had shared about our Friday night hang with you guys and then also your birthday party on Sunday? I just took them both.

Melissa: 32:24

Just like yeah.

Jam: 32:25

And then I got to go to Melissa's birthday party, and I'm just like, what would you even share about?

Melissa: 32:29

I would've been like, well, you took all mine. It was my birthday. Yay.

Jam: 32:33

That's fun.

Melissa: 32:34

But it was really fun. So I had a great weekend, and now I'm 32. Now I'm in my Lorelei Gilmore year. So thank

Jam: 32:48

funny whenever we turn those ages, and we're like, oh, man. I can't imagine being the age I'm at now, being the CGI now and having x, y, and z that they

Melissa: 32:56

had too. That they had. Yeah. Yeah. Well and before we wrap up, I did wanna shout out again that s d Pete is the person who Suggested this series of episodes.

Melissa: 33:06

I kinda took it and ran with it.

Jam: 33:08

Yeah.

Melissa: 33:08

But thank you so much for, sending that. That was a really good question, and it sparked 2 whole episodes.

Jam: 33:14

Totally. So if you have an idea or question or thought about something that could be chemistry related, Please reach out to us. Let us know. We've got ideas of our own, but some of these episodes that turn out to be so great are such good questions from you guys. So you can reach out to us on our website at kem for your life.com.

Jam: 33:30

That's kem, f o r, your life, .com to share your thoughts and ideas. If you like to help us keep our show going and contribute to cover Cost of making it? Go to patreon.com/kemforyourlife, or tap the link in our show notes or the description of the video To join our super cool community of patrons, we've got so many, friends over there that have been really fun to get to interact with, and so we'd love for you to join. If you're not able to do that though, you can still help us by subscribing on our favorite podcast app and rating and writing review on Apple Podcasts and subscribing on YouTube. That helps us to be able to share chemistry with even more people.

Melissa: 34:04

This episode of Chemistry For Your Life was created by Melissa Colini and Jam Robinson, And Jam Robinson is our producer. Thanks for giving us video, Jam. This episode was made possible by our financial supporters over on Patreon. It means so much to us that you wanna help make chemistry accessible to even more people. Those supporters are Avishai B, Brie M, Brian K, Chris and Claire s, Chelsea b, Derek l, Emerson w, Hunter r, Jacob t, Christina g, Lynn s, Melissa p, Nicole c, Steven b, Shadow, Suzanne s, Timothy p, and Venus r, thank you again for everything you do to make chemistry free life happen.

Jam: 34:46

We'd also like to give a special thanks to our 2 more reviewers who reviewed this episode. And if you'd like to learn more about today's chemistry lesson, you can check out the References for this episode in our show notes or on our website or in the description of the video.

Melissa: 34:58

Yay. Thanks for Watching or listening in gay chemistry.

Jam: 35:02

Gay chemistry. Thanks, guys.