How do hand warmers get hot?
Hey. I'm Melissa.
Jam:And I'm Jam.
Melissa:And I'm a chemist.
Jam:And I'm not.
Melissa:And welcome to Chemistry For Your Life.
Jam:The podcast helps you understand the chemistry of your everyday life.
Melissa:One of our listeners sent us a message that said that they started to say along to that. Yeah. And it made me laugh.
Jam:Yeah. We do do it pretty similarly every time. Yeah.
Melissa:I I really thought that was so funny and cool. So I think her name was Shael. Mhmm. So that's so so nice, Shail. Thanks for saying that.
Melissa:It makes me laugh. Now I'm thinking about you while we're doing it.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:Okay. Are you ready, Jam?
Jam:I'm ready.
Melissa:Today, we're gonna talk about how hand warmers work.
Jam:Hand warmers. Mhmm. Like, little bag ones that you shake up or whatever?
Melissa:So there's a couple different kinds. We're gonna do the reusable ones.
Jam:Oh, okay. Reusable. What do you mean?
Melissa:So, Abby my friend Abby and Steven have these hand warmers that you, like, bend this thing inside of them, and they Let off heat
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:And warm up. And then you boil them in water, and then they go back to back to Ready to go. Like, it resets them, and then you can bend that thing again, and it starts right over.
Jam:What? I I've never heard of that. The only ones I remember I have used and seen when I've been buying them is just the the disposable ones. I feel like the one and done, like, They last an hour or whatever, but I don't I've never even heard of reasonable ones. And I don't believe they exist, and you can't convince me.
Melissa:It definitely exists, and I have a picture of it.
Jam:Fine.
Melissa:The reusable ones and the one time use ones are a different chemistry, but they are both chemistry.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:So today, we're gonna talk about 1. I'm gonna save the the nonreusable ones for another day.
Jam:Okay. Plus,
Melissa:if gonna buy something, one time use is not the way to go.
Jam:Totally. I just didn't even know that it existed.
Melissa:Well, now
Jam:So I thought one time use was the only option. Unless you could get something that you could, like, plug in, Which is a lot less convenient. So you're at some outdoor thing, and you can't have a plug with you and a thing that runs a cable up to your hands to warn them.
Melissa:So Right.
Jam:I like the reusable idea.
Melissa:Well, I'm really excited about it.
Jam:Okay. Me too.
Melissa:So and I Learned that these existed, and I thought, it's gonna be pretty complicated. And then I ran across the explanation while I was looking something else up. Uh-huh. Gotcha. That's cool.
Melissa:That's cool.
Jam:Very, very
Melissa:excited to see it. And I said, okay. Then, we were just talking about this, and here it is.
Jam:Gosh. That's cool. So I was
Melissa:very, very excited to see it, and I said, okay. Then we're gonna do it. That's what's gonna happen.
Jam:I'm in. I'm ready. And it's good to do. A SWAT's still a little bit cold.
Melissa:It has been dreary here lately.
Jam:Mhmm. Mhmm.
Melissa:But I like that.
Jam:Yeah. But it'll be a lot less applicable if we try to do this in the summer. People will be like, I don't wanna know how things make me warm. How about smelling if it's cool?
Melissa:Yeah. I'm waiting. I can't believe I missed this for last fall, but I'm saving for next fall. Uh-huh. As soon as it starts to feel like fall, why leaves change colors?
Jam:Oh, dang. That sounds awesome. Mhmm.
Melissa:To have got that one in my back pocket. We've got big plans here on chemistry for your life. Okay. I'm gonna tell you the basics of how hand warmers work.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:And then I'm gonna dig deeper into it, and then you'll explain it back to me. Okay?
Jam:Okay. Sounds good.
Melissa:So the very basics, all a hand warmer does, Both kinds is use a heat releasing process to get your hands warm.
Jam:Heat releasing process.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:Okay?
Melissa:That's it.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:That's it. That's all that happens.
Jam:Releases heat. That makes sense because they obviously feel hot to us. Right. But where does the heat come from?
Melissa:That's the question. So how do they do it? I'm gonna throw some jargony words around,
Jam:but
Melissa:I'm gonna explain what they mean. So chemical and physical changes, That's, usually something we talk about the very beginning of Gen Chem 1.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Chemical changes are when something has reaction, basically. It changes chemically. The molecular structure changes.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:That's a chemical reaction. That's a chemical change.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:Physical changes are
Jam:Like coffee, chemical change. Obviously, bring coffee because it's get chemical change. Yep. Go ahead.
Melissa:Not convinced. Jim and I have have gone back and forth about the chemistry of coffee, but don't worry. It's coming. Okay. So physical change is the kind of change that you You know what?
Melissa:Coffee might be a chemical change. We've gotta really look into that. Okay. A Physical change is the kind of change that you've heard about. So think about the 3 states of matter, quote, 3 states of matter.
Melissa:Mhmm. And a gas, if you go between one of those to the other, it's called the physical change.
Jam:Okay. So just changing state of matter.
Melissa:Right. So it's not changing from Water to carbon dioxide and something else. I don't know why I was saying it. It's not changing from the same thing as water reacting with carbon dioxide and making carbonic acid. It's just water going from liquid to solid.
Jam:Can I ask a question about physical changes? Mhmm. Say you have, a substance of some kind.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:And all you do is break it into pieces, but it does not change, Like, state of matter, but it also doesn't change chemically. So you have a big chunk of salt, and you just Cut it into pieces. Mhmm. Is that just a physical change? You've just changed
Melissa:I think
Jam:a physical element of it, but it's still the state of matter it's in?
Melissa:I don't think so. I think a physical change is defined as when a matter changes among solid, liquid, or gaseous states. So So I think that's just nothing. It's just breaking it into smaller pieces. I don't think that isn't called a physical change.
Jam:So according to chemistry, no notable changes happened. We're not worried about the size of things changing? Like
Melissa:I mean, I think people care more about that in physical chemistry because the more or less service Area there is the more or less quickly things could happen, but but for the purpose of this conversation, doesn't matter.
Jam:I think I always had A little bit too broad of an idea of what a physical change was. Like, a change that can happen to something based on, like, my, Like, layman's regular folk teaching about stuff that it was a kind of visual change that wasn't chemical. So even if you, like Interesting. Broke something apart or whatever, if you didn't change something in a molecular way Down in there, if it was still just like, no. Now you have 2 pieces of wood instead of 1, something like that.
Jam:That that was physical Change. But I don't know that was told to me. I think I just had too broad of an idea that I don't know.
Melissa:I mean, that's an understandable idea in there. And I'll tell you, we had a conversation about chemical and physical changes among grad students.
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:It was an active learning activity. So, basically, we were doing what general chemistry students would have, and we argued hard about some of the things. Because When you go deep, there's not as much of a clear line between things. So we we had much more intense debates about less obvious things. So I think, You know, there's some gray in there, but for the purpose of basics Uh-huh.
Melissa:All you really need to know is the Changes among solid liquid or gaseous states.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:And that'll be good for this conversation.
Jam:Okay. Got it.
Melissa:But that's the right way to think. You've got your Your deep thinking cap on. You're asking questions, and that's what we like.
Jam:There we go.
Melissa:Yeah. So I'm I'm here for that. Okay. So Mhmm. Now that you know physical change and chemical change Uh-huh.
Melissa:Physical and chemical changes that give off heat
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:That release heat. Mhmm. That's called exothermic. I
Jam:I was about to say that.
Melissa:Were you?
Jam:I knew that word for some reason. I don't know why.
Melissa:Well, we do we do teach it in Uh-huh. Basically every general chemistry class. Non majors are majors. Yeah. So exothermic, the heat is exiting the system.
Jam:Yes.
Melissa:Endothermic. Oh, I should have let you guess.
Jam:Dang
Melissa:it. Sorry. Dang. Endothermic Uh-huh. Is when energy is being put into the system.
Melissa:Yes. Got it. Physical or chemical change Choir's energy to be put in.
Jam:Okay. So that makes sense. I just did a little bit of research. And endo makes sense as the prefix because indoor is the planet In Star Wars, where the Ewoks live, I think, actually. And so it's like that forest place.
Jam:Oh my god. And so, yeah, that's that becomes full circle kind of when you think about it.
Melissa:Ewoks are my favorite thing about the Star Wars universe. And when I was a little kid, I wanted an Ewok for a friend So badly.
Jam:Well, have you seen the little ones from the the last Jedi? The little guys? No.
Melissa:I think I'm behind.
Jam:I forgot they're called, but they're cute.
Melissa:That was an interesting tangent. Okay. Back into it. Indoor. This is your fault.
Melissa:Endothermic, energy putting in, exothermic, energy leaving.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:Usually, energy comes in and out of things in the form of heat.
Jam:So the therm part is the heat part. So you could have endoexo something else. But in this case, we're talking about exothermic, endothermic. I just mean the the prefix. You could feasibly
Melissa:Yes. In this case, we're talking about heat specifically. So heat is released. Heat is taken in. Endothermic for heat
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Taken in, exothermic for heat taken out. So it's heat specifically. Yes. I may have misspoken in said energy, but it's heat specifically.
Jam:Yeah. Which, In this case, the energy is the heat. Yeah. Heat. So they are 1.
Melissa:Yeah. But you can also have other forms of energy.
Jam:Yes.
Melissa:But in this case, it's heat specifically.
Jam:Okay. Got it.
Melissa:So you're tracking?
Jam:Yes. I'm tracking.
Melissa:Great. So now let's talk about some real examples of endothermic and exothermic So that then we can relate that all the way back to hand warmers. Okay. Okay. You wanna boil some water to make pasta.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:What
Melissa:do you do with the water?
Jam:You put the water in a pot and put on the stove and put some heat under it.
Melissa:So what does that make it? An endothermic or an exothermic process?
Jam:Talking about the water or the
Melissa:The water. Burner? The water.
Jam:The water is endo because it's taking heat In?
Melissa:Yes.
Jam:Got it.
Melissa:That's right. For some reason, the pot boiling one really gets people confused because the water is hot, so it feels like it's taking It's putting heat off, but it's you're putting heat into it for it to heat up.
Jam:Yes.
Melissa:So it's endo.
Jam:Yes. Got it.
Melissa:So That means water going from water to a gas Mhmm. Is an endothermic physical change.
Jam:Oh, yeah. Okay. Okay.
Melissa:It's taking heat in.
Jam:Yes.
Melissa:Okay.
Jam:And that that physical change is happening because of the heat.
Melissa:Right. Because
Jam:we're taking heat in. And it's changing. Got
Melissa:it. Another good example of this where you don't have to put heat in, but you can see the results of the endothermic reaction
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Is if you put this is a chemical change now. Baking powder and vinegar together, and then you touch the glass, it should feel cool to the touch.
Jam:Uh-oh.
Melissa:Endothermic reaction. Interesting. That's weird. We can talk more about why some reactions are endothermic and why others are exothermic at another time.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:I don't think it's worth it right now.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:So now let's do some exothermic processes. Can you think of something that's exothermic that's letting heat out or where you remove heat for the process to take place?
Jam:Okay. It's letting heat, from okay. Here's 1, I think.
Melissa:Okay.
Jam:You get 2 9 volt batteries. You flip 1 around, and then you stick them together. They're the ones that kinda have the clicky tabs in the ends.
Melissa:Uh-huh.
Jam:So you do this. And then if you leave them like that for a little bit, they start getting pretty warm.
Melissa:Okay.
Jam:Exothermic?
Melissa:Yeah. Maybe so. I don't know what's going on with those, so I can't say for sure. But that
Jam:Basically, one of them because each end is, like, the positive and the negative. Mhmm. All the negative. So you're putting together. And so, basically, it's like the electricity is going in circles or something.
Jam:Yeah. But, obviously, you're losing some because it's getting hot. Like, you're losing some energy.
Melissa:If it's putting off and generating its own heat, that's exothermic.
Jam:Yes.
Melissa:Can Can you think of something else too? Maybe a physical change that's exothermic? Listeners at home spend this time to try and think of some too.
Jam:One that is giving Away heat. Yep. Is that what you said? Okay. Right?
Melissa:Exothermic. Do you want me to give you a hint?
Jam:Maybe.
Melissa:If boiling water Is endothermic. What's the opposite?
Jam:Oh, freezing it?
Melissa:Freezing it.
Jam:Oh, yeah. I was thinking I was thinking about, like, you don't feel heat happening. Yes. But It's because it is dissipating.
Melissa:Right. So you just did an example of something that's really a good example is Mhmm. It's easy for people to visualize endothermic and exothermic chemical changes Mhmm. Because you can feel the heat or not. Mhmm.
Melissa:But I guess because we put the heat into water to make it boil or we put it in freezer. We don't
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:See that same amount of heat coming off and heat going in in the same way. Mhmm. So it's harder for people to wrap their mind around that.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Have you seen that have you seen that meme that's like, tired of waiting for water to boil for you know, every night when you're making dinner? Boil your water ahead of time, and then freeze it in the freezer so that you can have
Melissa:Oh, no.
Jam:Water for dinner. It's just like a it's just a meme that shows, like, These gallon bags of water in the freezer as if, like, boy.
Melissa:It is like Thousand Days where people are, like, Having such a hard time doing this thing Yeah. Do this other thing. You're like, no. Okay. So I wanted you to Sort of have that experience of it being harder for the physical change because what we're gonna talk about is a physical change.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:Okay. So water Boiling, water melting, endothermic processes. You have to put heat in to melt water. You have to put heat in to turn it into gas.
Jam:Right. Right. Right. Right.
Melissa:Heat's going away from it when it condenses from a gas back to a liquid.
Jam:Mhmm. And then when it goes from a liquid to a solid when you freeze it.
Melissa:Yes.
Jam:Got it. Okay.
Melissa:Okay. So that's endothermic and exothermic processes. You've got a handle on it.
Jam:Alright.
Melissa:Now all this, though, was about hand warmers. Mhmm. Right? Mhmm. So how do hand warmers work?
Melissa:How do reusable hand warmers work?
Jam:Yeah. How do they work?
Melissa:They're an exothermic process. So reusable hand warmers are a phase change of something going from liquid to solid.
Jam:It's
Melissa:a physical change. So the ones I'm talking about start out with A supersaturated solution. So all that means is there's a special kind of salt.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Sodium acetate, for those of you who care, Dissolved in water. Okay. And they dissolve as much as they can at room temperature, and then they heat it up and dissolve more.
Jam:Mhmm. And
Melissa:then they heat it up and dissolve even more.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:So it's fully saturated, as saturated as it can possibly be.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:And then do you remember when we talked about In snowflakes or any crystals, how they need something to start on?
Jam:Yes.
Melissa:So with snowflakes, it's dust or pollen.
Jam:You said also, like, when now we're doing crystal stuff in the lab, you would if so if something wasn't happening, you'd, like, scrape the side of the Beaker or whatever to, like, jump start the reaction.
Melissa:Yes. Or you had your supercooled water and you'd slam it?
Jam:Yes. Yep.
Melissa:Okay. So that process is known as a nucleation site when it has something to click on to so that it can start its crystal going process. Uh-huh. So A reusable hand warmer. It's a closed container with a super saturated solution of salt in it and a metal disc.
Jam:Is it, like, in a bag or something? Like, what does it even look like?
Melissa:Like a clear plastic bag. I'll show you a picture, and we'll post a picture on the interwebs. Yeah. Okay. So it's a clear plastic bag filled with a supersaturated liquid solution, and you can feel in there is a piece of metal.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:A circular metal disc. And you can bend that metal disk ever so slightly.
Jam:Mhmm. It's
Melissa:flexible. And that bending provides a nucleation site so that the supersaturated solution can, boom, start to crystallize. No way. Way.
Jam:No way.
Melissa:And as it starts to crystallize, it's just going going going going going and letting all that heat out.
Jam:And how long does it take? How long will it actually let heat off?
Melissa:I don't know. I've I've not used one. I assume, you know, like, an hour or just like regular.
Jam:That'd be awesome.
Melissa:And you can even see if I have a picture of a of a reusable hand warmer, and you can see the crystals. It's a clear bag. You can see the crystals are starting to form around the metal first, and then they spread out from there.
Jam:And then so you do that. Mhmm. It's doing that for about an hour and giving off heat
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:Because it's turning from liquid to a solid. Yep. And then after that, When you boil it back Mhmm. It is dissolving the Salt. Sodium whatever
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:Back into the liquid. Yep. And then you can do all over again?
Melissa:Yes.
Jam:Oh my gosh.
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:Dude, are you serious?
Melissa:I'm so serious.
Jam:These these have to have to cost 1,000, if not 100 of 1,000 of dollars.
Melissa:I bet it's not. I'm gonna look up right now how much do Reusable hand warmers cost.
Jam:This episode is brought to you by reusable handwarmers.com. Why use a hand warmer when you could reuse A hand warmer. Patent pending.
Melissa:You can purchase a level one reusable hand warmer pack of 2 for $10 on Amazon, and you can see It's a clear plat plouch. Plouch? It's a key it's a keyer. It's a keyer plouch. Gosh.
Melissa:It's a clear pouch.
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:And you can see the metal disc inside of it.
Jam:Dude.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:That is crazy.
Melissa:It is so cool.
Jam:Man, what the heck?
Melissa:Very cool. Science is amazing. It does so many cool things. It makes Life saving medicine, it makes sunlight turn into electricity, and it makes your hands warm using just a phase change.
Jam:Yeah. What the heck?
Melissa:It's so simple.
Jam:It's so weird how we're benefiting from this thing that's going on very, like, down in there. Yeah. And we're using it just because it gives off heat. It's, like, that's the part that we care care about. Doesn't matter.
Jam:We don't really care what's dissolving in what, and then what's, like, crystallizing into what. It's just like, Oh, yeah. I know it gets hot. It's like, okay. Sweet.
Jam:They're, like, totally harnessing.
Melissa:Isn't that amazing?
Jam:Yeah. That's crazy.
Melissa:It's, like, so simple, but so beautiful.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:I really I really am so glad that this was suggested Uh-huh. And that I stumbled upon it Yeah. So serendipitously.
Jam:Man, Serendipity. Wow. That's an element on the PR table
Melissa:for it. No. You're gonna start spreading misinformation on our on our Information centric podcast.
Jam:I probably should decrease the amount of disinformation. I think a little bit's good because people helps people get a good, like, What's the word? Like, center for the truth?
Melissa:Oh, yeah. That's true. Critical thinking is an important part of scientific discovery.
Jam:It helps be deceived a little bit So you know what the truth is. Yeah.
Melissa:Okay. That's all. That's everything I have for you today.
Jam:I think I got it. It's a simple one, which I like. And I'm glad because last time, I had a really hard time understanding it. I'm not sure if it was just that it was hard or if I hadn't had enough coffee Or what?
Melissa:Well, do you need to take a break and get some coffee right now?
Jam:I might wait a little bit.
Melissa:I do think it's not It maybe is simple, but there's also some big jargony words, and you kinda have to get the basics down.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:And it may became easier to you because you've been in some chemistry classes before.
Jam:Right. It's not like it's Just simple. It just I I guess when you told me about hand warmers, I thought it might be, like, Just super hard to understand and crazy. It's not simple. It's not as simple as how to butter a piece of toast or something.
Jam:Yeah. But it is
Melissa:Have we ever done anything as simple as how to butter a piece of toast? Also, if you didn't know how to butter a piece of toast, it might be complicated.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:And if the butter was Hard from the fridge?
Jam:Right. Yeah. That's not the simplest thing. Had a toast a piece of toast.
Melissa:Oh, gosh.
Jam:Okay. Let me take a crack a crack at this. Alright?
Melissa:I'm ready. I'm excited. So
Jam:Everybody's got hands.
Melissa:Just kidding.
Jam:That's not that's
Melissa:safe for this. That's fine. Okay. So Everybody's got hands.
Jam:I feel like a lot of times that that makes that makes sense as a beginning point for me, but this time, it's
Melissa:not heating.
Jam:That
Melissa:was a good one. Good one, Jim. Leave that in for sure.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:Yes. Hands.
Jam:Okay. So hand warmers have a liquid in them, the reusable handwarmer specifically
Melissa:Yes.
Jam:Have a liquid in them that has had a lot of a salt thing compound thing dissolved into it. Right. Just like, you know, we dissolve salt into water for a lot of things. Right.
Melissa:Or sugar into tea?
Jam:Yeah. Sugar into tea or whatever. Or a lot of sugar into water making simple syrup Mhmm. Which is kinda cool. Basically, it's just a lot of that dissolved into Is it just water, or is it a different kind of
Melissa:It's just water. K.
Jam:Yeah. And the thing that's unique about that specific Mix is that whenever it gets separated back out or, like, turns into a solid is that it's exothermic.
Melissa:So you couldn't just
Jam:do that with you couldn't just put salt into that?
Melissa:You could. Woah. So any salt. Physical process that goes from a liquid to a solid Uh-huh. Is gonna be giving off heat.
Jam:Any. Okay. That's that's cool. I mean, like, it makes sense about just, like, with the water or whatever. Water freezing.
Jam:But I thought for some reason that maybe there was a unique, like, Extra level of heat coming off of this situation? Or
Melissa:Yeah. I don't know if sodium acetate this gets into things I don't know about thermochemistry is Would different ones going release different amounts of heat? I don't really know. Yeah. I'm not great at ther thermochemistry, and I'm I'm really focused much more on organic chemistry, so I don't know that.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:But any physical going from a liquid to a solid would let off Some kind
Jam:of Okay. Heat. Got it. So that's by design in this case Mhmm. To benefit from that heat.
Melissa:Yes.
Jam:So the way to Start that process just like the crystal stuff we talked about.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:Is to have a nucleation
Melissa:point. Yep. A nucleation site.
Jam:And site. And that's this metal disc in there. So bending it a little bit kind of Jump starts this this physical change Yep. Changing the dissolved solid into the water Mhmm. To where it crystallizes Yep.
Jam:And becomes solid again.
Melissa:Yes.
Jam:And as it's doing that Mhmm. It Gives off heat. It's exothermic. Yes. And we benefit from the heat part.
Melissa:Yes.
Jam:Also, like, probably the coolest part really, I think, is that then you boil these little bags Mhmm. And it dissolves that sodium acetate back into the water
Melissa:Yes.
Jam:Returns it from once it came. Yes. To where then it's water and a basically, it's like water and a disc in a bag.
Melissa:Mhmm. Yeah.
Jam:So you can do it again. That is insane.
Melissa:It's amazing. The only thing you didn't say was the reason the crystallization is possible is because it's a supersaturated solution. So they shove more than would normally be in there at room
Jam:temperature.
Melissa:It's beyond its maximum point.
Jam:Right. Right. Right. Right. And and that's true about, like so say you're trying to put sugar into some already cold tea.
Melissa:Right.
Jam:It doesn't not as much dissolves into it. Right. Just hangs out the bottom Yes. In its Sugary, crystal ness. If it's room temperature, you can dissolve quite a bit.
Melissa:Yes.
Jam:But you're saying because it's even hotter when they do it, They put a ton in there.
Melissa:Yes. So it's ready to come right out of solution.
Jam:Got it. And I So it doesn't need that's why it's just like a little bend of a disc, and it's like
Melissa:Ready to
Jam:go. Oh, thank god. We've been trapped inside this water. It's been so claustrophobic in here.
Melissa:Yes. And the one thing I wanna say is it's not really. I likened it from going from a liquid to a solid. The crystallization is not exactly going from liquid to a solid. It's The ions are all dissolved in the water Mhmm.
Melissa:And then they are able to come down and form their crystalline state. So it's it really is a crystal formation not going from a liquid to a solid. It's not a freezing. Uh-huh. It doesn't is a crystal in formation.
Melissa:Yeah. It's a little bit different because We're talking about an ionic solid. It's kind of this whole other thing we don't need to get into.
Jam:So it goes into a solid ish?
Melissa:No. It definitely goes into a solid, but it doesn't start as a liquid. Starts as a liquidish kind of.
Jam:Okay. Starts with liquidish? Yeah. Okay.
Melissa:So I don't think getting into the complexities of that would be useful in any way, shape, or form.
Jam:Does it get hard because it's becoming less liquid?
Melissa:I think it does. Yeah. It get it becomes crunchy. Yeah. It looks like it becomes almost like solid.
Melissa:Uh-huh. I've never I've never used 1, but maybe we should order some on Amazon and hang out Yeah. And play with them.
Jam:Yeah. I think it's great. Yeah. $10 for a pair?
Melissa:Yeah. And so maybe by the time this episode airs, we will have something that we can put on Instagram or Twitter where you can see us Experiencing the magic.
Jam:Yes. That'd be awesome. I think that's a great idea.
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:Let's do it.
Melissa:Well, that's all I have for you today.
Jam:I like it. That was awesome.
Melissa:Should we share about something that made us happy this week?
Jam:Yes. Let's do it.
Melissa:Okay. I'm gonna start this week.
Jam:I don't think that's fair.
Melissa:I already told GM what my thing was, so I don't want him to steal it. Yeah. So my
Jam:attempted to do it.
Melissa:My thing this week is well, it's kind of twofold. So my mom's had a lot of medical things going on. There's been a lot of hard stuff, but 2 things that have been really incredible bright spots in my life R1, this podcast.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:So we have so much fun making it.
Jam:Totally.
Melissa:Anytime I'm having a hard day, I come in here, make this podcast. It's a dream.
Jam:Mhmm. I have
Melissa:so much fun. And The listeners that you guys, who are listening right now
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:That have reached out to us and communicated what it's meant to you and have shared that you're enjoying chemistry and have told me specific things that you've learned just warms my heart every time. I mean, I can't describe the joy that it brings when we get those messages. Yeah. And I actually showed we got a Nice song. 1 from a listener, Ellen, and it was so kind.
Melissa:I showed it to my mom, and Mhmm. She was, like, so touched. It was beautiful.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:And so I've just had a really I'm shocked and so honored that people would find value in this and that they would take the time out of their day to share with us has just meant so much to me. Mhmm. I'm getting a little emotional right now, but I'm not gonna cry. Yeah. It just I can't communicate to all of you listening how much this has meant to me and how much this experience has really Change my life for the better.
Melissa:So that's the one half of it. But very similarly, the people in my life around me have Just blown me away with how incredibly kind they are. And I've just been thinking so much lately about how lucky I am to have really kind friends and students And advisers and professors who are just really care about me as a person, very supportive.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Very encouraging. Encourage me to do this podcast. Encourage me in all my endeavors. I just feel very lucky to be surrounded by people who are just so kind and good and caring, so I can't recommend enough. If if you don't have people like that in your life, Go out and get some because Yeah.
Melissa:Yeah. It's just I think our lives, we're relational people. And so Yeah. Those relationships all of those relationships that I just talked about have added so much to my life that Just has really been put into sharp relief for me lately.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:I'm fine. I'm not crying. Yeah.
Jam:I'm glad you went first because that was really boring, and so now mine can be exciting.
Melissa:Yeah. Maybe I should have not let you go first. I'm just kidding. To the legovers because that was gonna be intense.
Jam:That's, like, super ditto for me. And so the nice thing, which Melissa's benefited from in the past where she can say, like, yeah. That me too, and then here's mine.
Melissa:Yeah. So
Jam:it's kinda like I get to say too. So ditto Yeah. To what Melissa said.
Melissa:That's true. One time, Jam sent me a listener message and said, okay. I'm gonna show you this, but don't cry. Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:So he also has really benefited from From those those awesome messages and hearing from you guys.
Jam:Yeah. So mine for this week is that, My mom's birthday's around this time, and so we I mean, she lives, like, 3 hours away. And so it's kinda hard to get together for that kind of stuff Sometimes, sometimes it has to be phone calls or whatever. The same time this week, my brother, sister-in-law, and their baby are moving, out of Texas to Kentucky. And so, we were able to arrange to all be together, me And my wife and my mom, my 2 brothers, my younger brother's wife and baby, we all got to get dinner together.
Melissa:Oh, I love that.
Jam:Which was awesome. And so we did that this week and met halfway to be able to do that. And then, we probably won't all be able to be in the same place for a little while. I'm not sure Dekelin, But, so that was really cool. It was awesome.
Jam:We, like, kinda did it in honor of my mom's birthday while at the same time it being the best opportunity to do that, For the next foreseeable
Melissa:Yeah. Next month or so. Christmas or Thanksgiving, will that probably happen again? So that's kind of a nice opportunity.
Jam:Totally. So that was great. Definitely definitely great. It was too short, but it was way better to do it and have a little bit of time altogether Yeah. Than, you know, not do it at all.
Jam:So
Melissa:Oh, that's Sweet.
Jam:Yeah. It was sweet. Got some really good time with my little niece, and, she got to taste a lemon for the 1st time, which that whole
Melissa:did see the video of that. Yeah. Very cute. Yeah.
Jam:That whole, like, like, babies trying lemons and strange foods for the 1st time, and their reactions is always Great. So
Melissa:So good.
Jam:Yeah. Anyway, that's my that was my thing this week. It was awesome.
Melissa:Sappy this week, aren't we?
Jam:Yeah. We're a mess over here.
Melissa:We're we're just a sappy mess. We're just a bunch of saps. Thanks so much, Jam, for coming to learn. And
Jam:Anytime.
Melissa:Yeah. Really, just once a week. And thanks to Abby and Steven who gave me the idea for the hand warmers episode. That was such a good one. And thanks to all of you guys for listening and for reaching out and to making this show exactly what it is, which is so incredible.
Jam:Melissa and I have a lot of ideas for topics of chemistry in everyday life, but we wanna hear from you. So if you have questions or ideas, you can reach out to us in Gmail, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook at chem for your life. That's Kim, f o r, your life, to share thoughts and ideas. If you enjoy this podcast, you can subscribe on your favorite podcast app. If you really like it, you can write our review on Apple Podcasts.
Jam:That helps us to be able to share chemistry with even more people. If you like to help us keep our show going and contribute to the costs of making it, Go to kodashfi.com/chem for your life, and donate the cost of a cup of coffee.
Melissa:This episode of Chemistry For Your Life was created by Melissa Colini and Jame Robinson. References for this episode can be found in our show notes or on our website. Jame Robinson is our producer, and we'd like to give a special thanks to
