Why do we stir things to dissolve them?
Well, Jam, today, we're gonna answer the age old question.
Jam:What? Wait. Which age old question?
Melissa:Why does sugar dissolve better in hot tea than cold tea?
Jam:Okay. I
Melissa:feel like you might know the answer already, but we're also gonna talk about why stirring helps dissolve things?
Jam:Okay. Okay.
Melissa:And we're also just gonna talk about why things dissolve better in hot liquids in general, not just sugar. All things?
Jam:All things. Okay.
Melissa:So are you ready?
Jam:I'm ready. Let's do it.
Melissa:To even talk about what dissolving is?
Jam:Yes.
Melissa:Alright. Let's dissolve into it. I just thought of that. Let's actually get into it.
Jam:But is it a hot enough topic for us to dissolve into it easily?
Melissa:That was so good. Okay. And go. Hey. I'm Melissa.
Melissa:I'm Jam. And I'm a chemist.
Jam:And I'm not. And welcome
Melissa:to chemistry for your life.
Jam:The podcast helps you understand the chemistry of your everyday life.
Melissa:Okay. So I this is a request from a listener and and real life friend, Kim Ed Kim Ed person's spouse
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:Neil asked so they're they didn't ask about sugar, but I'm broadening it
Jam:out. K.
Melissa:Asked about why things dissolve better in hot liquids and cold ones, and their example is chili like a fiber powder? You know? If you mix fiber powder in, it goes a lot better into a hot liquid than a cold liquid.
Jam:K.
Melissa:So that's what we're gonna talk about.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:But also we stir while we while we do things. So I also wanna talk why we stir when we're trying to get things to
Jam:dissolve. Right. Okay.
Melissa:And I thought you might know actually based on I thought this might be, like, a tire episode incident where you might Be able to think about everything that's happening at the molecular level and come up with a guess as to what's happening.
Jam:K.
Melissa:But it also might be more complicated than you thought. It's like a 5050 shot. So I wanted to just pause for a minute and see. And the listeners at home, they can pause too, take a little pause break, and think to yourself, Do you know what's happening when something dissolves in water or other liquids, and why do you think the stirring and the heating might help?
Jam:Okay. Okay. I think I've got a guess. Okay. So but I remember talking about a couple things.
Jam:Dissolving, we talked about several times. Mhmm. We We also talked about a suspension before. Mhmm. And so just taking the example you said in the intro, like sugared tea, for instance.
Jam:Mhmm. I'm thinking it takes the the sugar putting in there Needs to find its way to distribute itself all throughout. Right?
Melissa:Correct.
Jam:And So that should mean that there needs to be a lot of things happening at the molecular level for that to happen. So, like, you have a granule of sugar or whatever. Mhmm. For it to Spread out throughout. Mhmm.
Jam:My question, I guess, is one thing. Is it gonna be linking up with those stuff, or it's just gonna, like, Distribute itself. Because we talk about reactions and things like that. We talk about heat increases the amount of Energy, things moving around more freely. A 100%.
Jam:Can come apart. They can link back up other things, and so just Eat is a way to make things happen faster Mhmm. In many cases. I guess not every single case ever. Yeah.
Jam:Maybe, but in many cases. And then that to in my mind, I would think maybe think that the stirring does the same thing almost. It's like we're gonna allow things to move around more, and That will speed up things too just like, whenever we like, when you have Super cooled water Mhmm. But nothing is disturbing it at all. It stays liquid.
Jam:But if you have something that changes it, creates a nucleation side or get things moving around, Then things could happen more. So, like, the temperature or something increases its ability to to react and happen faster, more energy, Plus, literally putting kinetic energy in by stirring Yeah. Would do the same thing? Yeah. So What I don't have clarity on and I'm not really sure about is whether You putting sugar in tea just distributions molecules throughout the thing Mhmm.
Jam:In an even way. Mhmm. Or if something happens more than that. And that's where I bet that maybe dissolving might be more complicated than I think.
Melissa:It's not that much more complicated.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:I think that is a really good starting place, and you're like, Oh, it's it's like you didn't hit it out of the park, but you definitely, like, made a base or 2.
Jam:Oh, you don't like sports. I don't think I was gonna say, is there anything Somehow it's still an insult because it's a
Melissa:It's kind of like the shoot for the moon, and even if you miss, you'll end up among the stars.
Jam:Nice. There we go.
Melissa:You ended up among the stars. You didn't quite Get to the moon, but you're really close. And I would say you have, like, a vague outline of concepts, but you don't have it, like, crystal clear. You know?
Jam:I don't think I do either. So
Melissa:But it that was a really, really good like, I love that you're thinking about the molecular level and putting energy in. That's everything I want you to be thinking about.
Jam:Okay. Cool.
Melissa:I also liked this because so it applies to, like, you know, if you have a hot tea or here in the South, we make iced tea a lot. And If you, if you've ever worked at a restaurant or if your family makes tea, it works best if you put the sugar in while it's still hot and then cool let down? Mhmm. Iced coffee, a lot of times, I will use, like, a if you have it hot and then you let it cool down. If If you put the cold like, the sugar in after its ice, it gets all the, like, granules.
Melissa:They don't, like, really dissolve. So I'll use, like, a syrup so that it goes in better?
Jam:Right.
Melissa:So there's a reason that all that happens. Oh, and the other thing I was gonna say was, even when you're baking can because we're coming up on the holiday season.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:We're recording a little bit ahead of time, but when this comes out, They'll be like Halloween has passed. We're moving into the, like, meatiness of the holiday season.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:If you're making meringues for pies or for, like, Marion cookies or whatever? A lot of times, I'll have you heat up the egg whites to dissolve sugar into it or, like, for some different types buttercream and you also whisk? So you heat and you whisk up egg whites to get sugar to dissolve in. So this concept has a lot of applications cross everyday life?
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:Hot coffee versus cold coffee, hot tea versus cold tea, heating up egg whites and stirring, it's all over the place.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Okay. So I thought of analogy that I felt, like, would explain what dissolving actually is most clearly.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:Okay. So imagine I'm gonna use Halloween colors because it's still Halloween, so I'm gonna use purple and orange
Jam:K.
Melissa:Where we are in time. Right. We're getting ahead for the holiday season. So, imagine that you have a group, a, like, very large group of people in purple shirts.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:And then you have a smaller group of people in orange shirts.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:So if you just plopped the orange group of people right down in the very middle of the purple group?
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:You'd be able to see that orange really clearly.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:Now if you Spread all the orange out and dispersed it, you know, around the crowd. It doesn't necessarily have to be evenly dispersed, but it's dispersed around the crowd. And for every single person in an orange shirt, you surrounded them by people in purple shirts. Mhmm. And those people in purple shirts are, like, you know, doing the tunnel that, like, moms do after soccer.
Melissa:Put your put your hands up so you'd, like, make the tunnel with me. Yep. For the people on YouTube? Uh-huh. They do that thing.
Melissa:You know? Yes. But imagine it's like a circle of people all doing that.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:You would not really be able to see the people in the orange shirts. Right?
Jam:Right.
Melissa:Okay. So that is similar to what happens when molecules, like, of sugar dissolve. So there's not a reaction that's happening per se, but the molecules do interact with each other.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:I'm just gonna take a little detour because, whenever I say per se, I always think of full house and uncle Jesse
Jam:because that
Melissa:was the Uh-huh. Anyway, that was just a little side.
Jam:I think I I think I have the same memory.
Melissa:Really?
Jam:Just checking. Can I in fact, I can hear him say? That's so funny.
Melissa:Throw it back. Okay.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:Back in it. Okay. So now if you have sugar molecules, it's not a chemical reaction. The sugar molecules aren't breaking up. Just like the people in the orange shorts, They're not you're not, you know, breaking up their bodies.
Melissa:They're still a whole person.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:So it's still a whole molecule. But instead of having a large group of sugar molecules together in one clump? Uh-huh. You break up those molecules.
Jam:Got it.
Melissa:And each individual sugar molecule would be solvated? So that means the thing you're dissolving it into, that's the solvent. Mhmm. It would the molecules of that would surround the molecule of the sugar. So Say you're dissolving sugar in water or fiber powder in water or whatever it is.
Melissa:You have 1 molecule of that.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:And it will interact water molecules, intermolecular forces?
Jam:Right.
Melissa:And the water molecules will react with it and each other, so they'll surround that thing. So instead of just having, like, several sugar molecules together? You have 1 sugar molecule surrounded on all sides by water molecules. And that means that thing is completely solvated. It's completely covered in the molecules of the solvent.
Melissa:Mhmm. And if you disperse that all throughout and you have all the sugar molecules are all completely covered by the water molecules, they're first of all gonna be very small. We can't see things on a molecular level, so it looks like it's gone away. But second of all, it means that, You know, it's even it's all dispersed out in the liquid.
Jam:Got it. Got it.
Melissa:So you still have an intact molecule. You still have a tiny molecule size of sugar, but it's just surrounded completely by the water. So just like if you think about the example with The purple shirts the purple shirts are the water or the solvent, whatever you're dissolving into, and the orange shirt people are the things that are getting dissolved in? And the orange shirts are being completely covered by the purple shirts, You can't even see that they're there anymore.
Jam:Right. Right. Does that
Melissa:make sense?
Jam:Makes total sense. Yes. I'm with you.
Melissa:And the way that the molecules are interacting with chowder? The reason they're surrounding each other is intermolecular forces.
Jam:There we go. Okay.
Melissa:So that's how the water's interacting with the thing in the middle. You know, the sugar and water are interacting. They have, they both have the ability to do the strongest intermolecular force, hydrogen bonding, which If you want a lesson on intermolecular forces, go all the way back to Gecko episode.
Jam:Oh, yeah.
Melissa:We've talked about that a few times lately.
Jam:Yes. And, also, did we Rebroadcast it?
Melissa:We have rebroadcasted it. But it wasn't, like, this week this month.
Jam:It was, like, probably earlier in the year. Right. Right.
Melissa:And, also, we've done a lot of episodes on intermolecular forces, and that's why we have the shirt that says return of the intermolecular forces.
Jam:Sure. You mean may the Oh,
Melissa:may the intermolecular forces be with you.
Jam:That was the gig return of
Melissa:the Jedi. Different Star Wars different Star Wars reference. Return of the intermolecular forces? Well, now it's a return of them.
Jam:Yeah. It's When we made one for each movie, it's like a new Intermolecular force.
Melissa:A new application of intermolecular force.
Jam:Yeah. Revenge of the intermolecular forces.
Melissa:Anyway, so you can't dissolve something that can't interact, you know, with the solvent at all.
Jam:Rather, Sasha's gonna ask, so, yeah, there's a limitation, like, Some things can dissolve in water, some things cannot. Maybe some things that can't dissolve in water, could dissolve in something else? Right.
Melissa:Yep. Absolutely. Like, Oil can't dissolve in water, but oil could dissolve in different type of oil.
Jam:Right. Right.
Melissa:Or, like, ethanol alcohol that dissolves in water, but I bet it doesn't dissolve in oil? I'm guessing. I've never tried it.
Jam:Carbonating stuff. You probably couldn't just carbonate anything. Correct?
Melissa:Probably not.
Jam:If you have a combination machine, we could try it.
Melissa:Well, I'm thinking Let's see if
Jam:we can carbonate some vegetable oil.
Melissa:I think carbon side is linear and nonpolar? I think. Pause it. Little intermission. Wanna make sure that's right.
Jam:Sorry to throw a weird question in the amount of.
Melissa:Yeah. That's okay. I mean, I think dissolving gases are a little different also because if you put it under a lot of pressure, I think it'll forced in? Right. I'm thinking of solid particles in liquid.
Melissa:Okay.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:And the same thing is true, like, in dissolving gases yep. Maybe just put dissolving gases out of your mind because gases dissolve better in things that are cold anyway. So gases act kinda different than solids and other liquids? We don't
Jam:play by our rules. You know?
Melissa:Gases are wild. So so just disregard that question that Jim asked even though it's a good one. I think Gases play by different rules. So Yeah. Let's focus on
Jam:It was just, like, a too good of a question.
Melissa:It was just too Yeah. Good. Sorry. If you wanna learn about gases, you can we also did the an episode on diet Coke and Mentos, and we talk about how the water like, how the carbon dioxide molecules are all distributed out in air?
Jam:And we did 1 about does why does carb carbonated water have a taste?
Melissa:Yeah. That one was good. Mhmm. That's making me want carbonated water. Mhmm.
Melissa:Okay. Anyway, so, yeah, the the intermolecular forces are what it's what interacts with the water molecules or the thing it's dissolving or whatever the solvent is with the thing it's dissolving around? But also they'll interact with each other. You know? Water will interact with each other.
Melissa:So the water will be rounding it and have something in the middle? Yep. And they're all able to sort of interact with each other. And so it basically, you know, breaks people up. Sort of like air molecules up?
Melissa:It's kinda like when you're in on cop shows and they're gonna investigate somebody, you know, on, like, CSI. And they're like, We gotta separate the witnesses out or, you know, we gotta separate the suspects out. So the water just separates out out all the individual molecules? So it's not a large enough thing for us to see anymore, and that's why it appears to disappear.
Jam:Got it. Okay. Yes. Got it.
Melissa:And that is how things get dissolved.
Jam:Wow.
Melissa:Now let's talk about the heat and the stirring. Unless, do you have any questions on that?
Jam:I so they want to get the 1 molecule by itself. Mhmm. And the the intermolecular forces are what make that happen. Mhmm. But I guess I guess we could keep going.
Jam:I'm like I guess I guess that works pretty well too because, normally, there is a limit to how much you can dissolve Into something.
Melissa:Yes.
Jam:So that is another factor there. Right? But I was thinking for a second. I was like, Would that would only work if there's more of the other thing.
Melissa:Yes. Yeah.
Jam:So okay. Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:Yeah. There is, what you're hitting on is, like, the solubility? So if something is able to dissolve, and then there is, like, a saturation level. So the solubility is is this thing able to dissolve in this other thing anyway? And then at what point is it saturated?
Melissa:Has all of the salt that you can possibly put in this water, all the sugar you could possibly put in this water. There's a maximum point. Yeah. And when you've reached that, there's saturation. Okay.
Melissa:But what we're gonna talk about next is how heat impacts that. Okay. Okay. So that's how things dissolve. And the mechanism by which they are sort of held in place or they keep The molecules of the thing dissolved in there.
Melissa:It's called the solute. Solute is dissolved in solvent. Okay. My high school chemistry teacher wrote solvent on the board with a big v? Shout out, miss Mullis.
Melissa:A big v for the solvent. Mhmm. And then she wrote solute inside the v. So it's like the solute is going into the solvent.
Jam:Got it. Like, it
Melissa:was a big, cliff or whatever? Canyon? So the solute goes in the solvent. So when all of the solute molecules are separated out by the solvent? It's sort of held in place where the interactions happen by intermolecular forces.
Melissa:Right? But The the interactions with the molecules have to happen somehow. And we've talked about this in baking powder and baking soda.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:If you don't have a medium for things to move around in, reactions or interactions between molecules happen a lot more slowly.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:But in this case, All the molecules in water are always moving around whether or not you see it. They have a level of energy to be able to move round? Mhmm. And so they are moving around. And then if you put the sugar molecules in there, they're also moving, but much less, right, because they are solid.
Melissa:So if you have something that's hot, it will put energy in that allows them to move around more. You know, if you heat up water, You're adding more energy and letting those molecules move and move and move and move around even more, and then they have more opportunities to interact with the sugar and for the water to start surrounding the sugar molecules? And that's why the more heat you put in, the hotter or something is the more energy it is, the more molecules can move around, the more opportunities they have for the sugar molecules to be separated out by the water molecules
Jam:Got it. Okay.
Melissa:Or whatever your sol you and solvent are?
Jam:Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Melissa:And then stirring Does the same thing. As you're stirring, you're putting energy in, and you're also breaking things up and creating more opportunities for interactions to happen between these molecules.
Jam:Got it. Okay.
Melissa:And that's it.
Jam:So water is both the molecule that's trying to surround it and the medium by which it can
Melissa:interact. Because it's liquid.
Jam:Because it's liquid. Got it.
Melissa:And the heat is the energy that allows them to move around more and more. I mean, even at room temperature, they already have a level of heat in there. Right? Mhmm. You know?
Melissa:But if you make it cold, you're taking away energy from those molecules. So if you're making it cold, you take away energy from the molecules, than they're gonna be able to interact with other sugar less and less and less? And so there's gonna be a point at which it's not gonna be able to take that sugar in?
Jam:Right.
Melissa:But as you heat it up, you're putting more and more and more energy in, and it'll get to a point where it can take in more sugar?
Jam:Right. Right. Okay.
Melissa:So that saturation point is different at different periods of heat.
Jam:Okay. Got it.
Melissa:Makes sense?
Jam:Yes. I think it does.
Melissa:Do you wanna take a stab at explaining back to me why we stir things, why we heat things up, why things dissolve easier in that?
Jam:Yeah. So I'm gonna I'm gonna branch off of your people, orange shirts, purple shirts analogy. Okay. So who is who is in who? By the way, was it the orange shirts being dissolved into the
Melissa:Purple. Yeah.
Jam:Purple shirts. Okay. So So the purple shirt folks are are saying to the orange shirt folks are like, to you who wear orange shirts, we saw you you.
Melissa:Mhmm. We sell you to you?
Jam:Something like that? I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding.
Melissa:Yeah. Do you who wear orange roots? That that helps you remember. We sell salutyl?
Jam:This is what I wanted to find a way to say that.
Melissa:How long have you been thinking about that?
Jam:Yeah. Ever since you said the the and the salutyl.
Melissa:You looked Like, a little. You had a small look of consternation, but it was like now I thought you were not sure, but now I know you were thinking about when can I put this joke in
Jam:here? Yeah. It doesn't quite work because solute is not a verb. Right? So it's the the noun.
Jam:Yeah. So yeah. Anyway. Okay. So we got the purple shirts and orange shirts.
Jam:Mhmm. Purple shirts, water. Or Water. Whatever. Solute.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:Solvent.
Jam:Solvent.
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:Sugar orange shirts.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:What is going to be dissolved with the solute. Right? So if you have those groups of people and you add a lot of orange shirts, The orange shirted people to a group of purple shirted people. Mhmm. But it's colder.
Jam:Mhmm. The purple shirted people, it those molecules will be, like, closer together. They can interact with the orange shirt people. Mhmm. But it's gonna be a little slower.
Jam:It's gonna be kinda limited. It's almost like if you had a densely packed room and people were not being very social. In fact, they're almost or maybe, say, even huddled together a little bit because it's kinda cold or something. You add a bunch more people. It just might not quickly Flow and interact despite that.
Jam:Like, you know, just everyone's just kinda talking and staying right where they're at. Like, maybe all the purple people already know each other. All the orange shirt people already know each other. Right. You're trying to
Melissa:put them together, and it's like a no go?
Jam:Yeah. It's like a there may be a little bit of natural stuff just on the edge where the where the seam is, so to speak. Mhmm. But the people the orange people who are further away, there's no way for them to interact with the purple shirt people, really. They're kind of just insulated in.
Jam:And so it'd be like that kind of social dynamic where that's just not happening. And then say adding heat is like doing something like, okay, everyone, Change seeds. Something like that. It just, like, forces something like that.
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:And so then a lot of a lot more of the Or or say even you give some sort of motivation. Like, okay. You know? In in this case, of course, there's more purples than oranges. Right?
Jam:So it's
Melissa:like those bingo cards We had to get to know people.
Jam:Yes. Yes. Or, like, I think I've used this used this as an example before, but I was a student council back in high school, and we'd have these larger, like, sort of district student council Get togethers for the various leaders of the student council. They always had various icebreaker y things to Force people to get dinner? People from the other schools.
Jam:Yep. It'd be almost like that. Like, in introducing that, but it'd be more like, alright, purples. You've gotta get to know some oranges. Like that.
Jam:It something motivates them, and maybe you, you know, you get some sort of reward or something like that. But as soon as you introduce that as an idea, as a motivation, Purple start looking for oranges and moving around, and it just gets easier. The the flow of the room happens. It starts happening more and more. And then say you also, Say something like that's how you say that's just heat.
Jam:Okay. And then maybe you add some other motivation on top of that. Mhmm. That's the stirring. That would be like, okay.
Jam:You need to talk to as many oranges as you possibly can. Mhmm. I think it's really people moving around like crazy. Yeah. But if there's fewer oranges than there are purples in the 1st place Mhmm.
Jam:That's gonna mean, You know, 5 or 6 purples to every 1 orange, something like that. And so this surrounding of the oranges by purple is gonna start happening. Yeah. Because there are only so many oranges.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:And all the purples, you've created a motivation for them. But in the case of the The actual molecules, not not the shredded folks. We've got the fact that there's intermolecular forces at play.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:They Want to surround these oranges?
Melissa:I mean, they're happy to interact with them. I don't know if it's like they're like, Interacts with water, interacts with sugar. They're they might have a similar strength, but it's like if they come near them, they're going to interact. They're like, Oh, you're here. We're interacting.
Jam:Yes. And we and they it is a liquid, so they can. Right? Mhmm. But as long as we have put some energy in, both at on heat or By stirring, that is very possible, and they are very happy too.
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:But we have encouraged it by doing the those things. And then they surround them, and then the sugar molecules are are individualized. They're broken out of there. They're granule, so to speak.
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:And then they're surrounded by multiple molecules of the liquid and dispersed throughout The liquid, ideally. Yeah. Pretty evenly. So when we take a sip, it tastes like every sip has an equal amount. Mhmm.
Jam:Instead of getting to the bottom of your drink and being like, woah. That's sweet at the bottom, and it's all concentrated in one place. Or Worse. Oh, it's grainy and Yeah. Disgusting and and yeah.
Jam:And then the rest of your drinks last week. Yeah. Yeah. Something like that. Did I miss something?
Melissa:No. That was great. It kinda reminded me of when I was I used to be a camp counselor, and I was at a church camp. Uh-huh. In some weeks, you would have a whole church come together.
Melissa:And, like Mhmm. That whole church was in 1 cabin, and then there would be, like, 2 or 3 new people that weren't part of that church that just came separately on the same week. Yeah. And And usually, the the people who all knew each other would integrate those people, and they'd be like, oh, you're here, so we might as well interact with you. And then by the end, Couldn't really tell who was with the church and who wasn't.
Melissa:Who was new?
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:And so it kind of reminds me of that where it's like, oh, you're here, so we might as well interact with you. It's not like they were going to look for MERS, specifically,
Jam:or whatever?
Melissa:But if they're there, they you can't, and then they're sort of indistinguishable. You know?
Jam:Right. It's like we're all on this glass of liquid together. We're on this, Why not interact?
Melissa:Why not interact?
Jam:Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:Unless they're, yeah, they're really different. You know?
Jam:Yeah. Yeah. And then then the molecular forces won't allow them to. Yeah.
Melissa:That kind of also when I was thinking about it, I was like, if you have 1 molecule of something, that 1 molecule It's not really because you said, oh, because, you know, the water's liquid. Mhmm. I was like, is the other thing liquid still or not or salt still or not? And I was like, well, if you just have 1 molecule of something, it wouldn't be considered a solid or liquid or a gas. Because the solid and liquid and gas, I think
Jam:Describes the
Melissa:How they interact with each other.
Jam:Yeah. Wow. That is crazy.
Melissa:I think.
Jam:I like I like that The idea is a sort of interesting surprising answer. It's like is one mock of anything, solid liquid gas.
Melissa:Matter. I don't think it is. Maybe if anything, you'd say it's gas, but I wouldn't say it's a gas in the when it's dissolved.
Jam:Right. Yeah. Totally.
Melissa:Weird.
Jam:So if you could add 1 molecule of sugar to, glass of something, would you say it's solid for gas? You couldn't You couldn't say really. Right?
Melissa:I I don't feel confident saying.
Jam:Wow.
Melissa:Maybe like a gray area. Maybe other chemists would have thoughts, but I that my thought is I don't think you could say.
Jam:I guess that does kinda remind us though that all things are I mean, like, we have the neat categories of solid liquid gas.
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:But to the molecules, it's probably or it's all molecule. I mean, I don't know. It's like
Melissa:They're not thinking of themselves, in any way. They don't think. You know?
Jam:Yeah. Yeah. They're just like, sometimes I've got, like, lots of molecules, like, right next to me really close. Sometimes I've got, like, a lot of room, but, you know, just kinda how it is.
Melissa:Kinda like how kids kinda get shuttled around. You know? Like, toddlers, it's like sometimes at school, sometimes at home. I don't know why. Sometimes things happen sometimes in house.
Jam:What life is like. Yeah.
Melissa:Yeah. Yeah. So that was an interesting thing that occurred to me while you were kind of talking and describing.
Jam:That is interesting. I like that. I like that a lot.
Melissa:Great. Well, that's it. That's our chemistry lesson for today. It's short and sweet, and it's food themed for the holiday season.
Jam:Nice.
Melissa:And we're, again, touched on phases of matter, which we've been talking about a little bit lately. So That's awesome. Fun.
Jam:I like it.
Melissa:Well, that was fun. But, also, do you have any fun thing from your everyday life that you wanna talk about?
Jam:Fun thing from my everyday life that I wanna talk about. What other question? Do you have something? I do have something. Okay.
Jam:You go first.
Melissa:Okay. Well, y'all know we moved into a new house.
Jam:Oh, yeah.
Melissa:And my friends, Abby, and Steven, and they're also listeners of the show, They have been in house for a while, and they've been composting for a while, and they recently upgraded their compost situation.
Jam:Interesting.
Melissa:And I inherited their compost. Ah. And it's so great because we cook with vegetables dribbles a lot? Like, anytime we make ceviche and we have, like, you know, leftovers of, like, the husk of a avocado or this or that. Yeah.
Melissa:I'm always like, man, I wish I had something to compost or, like, you know, if there's, like, a piece of the tomato that's gone bad or whatever. I'm like, man, I wish I could compost. Yeah. Meantime I cut up the apple and leave the car, man, I wish I could compost.
Jam:Mhmm. And
Melissa:I say that all the time. And now I cans? Nice. So we finally got it set up in the backyard at the new house, and I've been using it for about a week now. And I'll have to Google, like, can I compost this?
Melissa:Can I compost that? And, I've been making these pumpkin muffins lately, and I had extra pumpkin puree. And I put it in a little Tupperware thing? And then, promptly forgot about it with the craziness of moving. I wasn't able to make more.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:And I found it in the fridge, and it unmolded.
Jam:Okay. I was like, this This is gonna go to waste. And then
Melissa:I was like, wait. Can I compost this? Uh-huh. And I could. Nice.
Melissa:And it was just really exciting.
Jam:That's awesome.
Melissa:And so So yeah. Anyone have any composting tips? Let me know. I'm kinda flying blind. I'm just kinda throwing things in there.
Melissa:Paper towels that you only use for food stuff? Which that's also nice. Yeah. Because we've we'd stopped using paper towels completely, but the only time that was challenging was for our cast iron pants. Mhmm.
Jam:You know,
Melissa:because they are you get oil. Mhmm. And if
Jam:you have oil on a rag?
Melissa:It can be kind of hard to get the oil out of it.
Jam:Yeah. And do you wanna mix with other things you're washing and maybe you're gristling along?
Melissa:Get the oil smell on everything. And that was That was getting really frustrating for us. And so now we have reimplemented paper towels in our house only to be used on that on Yeah. On our cast iron? And so we have a compost now, and I'm really excited about it.
Jam:You can compost paper towels?
Melissa:Yes.
Jam:Nice.
Melissa:Unless they've been used with, like, chemicals or something?
Jam:But
Melissa:if it's just food Yeah.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:You it seems like you can compost anything that's not chemicals that's, not chemicals? I'm I'm doing the thing that I hate. When I say chemicals, I mean, like, cleaning chemicals or, like, none nonfood products. Right. You know?
Jam:Yep.
Melissa:And I think I'm sure it probably wouldn't be terrible, but part of it is you don't wanna have, like, an excess of 1 type of molecule over another. Something of, like, window cleaner if that's primarily, like, ammonium? I think you're probably gonna get some of that anyway in the breakdown.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:But having too much might mess the balance off. I don't know. Anyway, so you can do paper towels that have mostly only come into contact with food products, but you can't do meat or dairy. Mhmm. But, like, vegetable scraps we've done, brown paper bags?
Melissa:I think you can do as long as they're not coated. Paper towels.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah. And we do while I'm Reimplementing them. Obviously, you're composting them, which is great. I we use bamboo paper towels here Oh, no.
Jam:Because it's like, you can grow it, and it's not cutting down trees for that. Well, I really wish, like, every time we buy some of those again, which that's all we use, but I buy, like, a larger box every couple months or something. Mhmm. Like, man, I wish this was cheaper. Like, if more people are just growing bamboo and more of these companies existed Yeah.
Jam:Unless we're doing the the tree the, like, tree trees thing, It'd be so much cheaper, but, like, it is, like, per roll. Yeah. Kind of dumb how expensive it is. But it's also like there are probably, like, or 3 companies I know of that are doing that right now, so it probably makes sense that it's more offensive. Yeah.
Jam:Economy scale kinda thing. But
Melissa:There's probably also, like, At one point, is there too much bamboo and it, like, becomes a problem for the environment the other way?
Jam:Yeah. But the last thing is that they can completely cut it, Like, real low, and it grows back so much faster.
Melissa:It's just like Yeah.
Jam:That is really need, like, to take up tons of fields of space of bamboo When it regenerates much more quickly.
Melissa:That's true in Minecraft too. Woah. Minecraft
Jam:is just like everyday life. Speaking of trees, can I tell you about the cool thing that
Melissa:Wait? I just wanna do one thing.
Jam:Oh, yeah?
Melissa:I just want to shout out the, Swedish dish glass that we use that are an alternative to paper towels? Doesn't doesn't doesn't your family use them too?
Jam:No. Ditched them.
Melissa:Oh, really? How come?
Jam:Because we have bamboo paper towels.
Melissa:Oh, okay.
Jam:And there are things that we clean up with them that I was like, I don't like, I mean, things like they would soak it up, like, oil or, like Yeah. We have kids making messes and stuff, and it we found that, like, the washing of them and, like, doing a, Like, that whole process of that kind of stuff and how they would change over time Mhmm. And stuff. It, like, didn't integrate itself into our life very well at all. So
Melissa:Interesting. Stings?
Jam:Got rid of them.
Melissa:Well, we love them. They're so well integrated into our lives. And so probably, we are still keep using that for everything else.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:And it's a cheaper option, and it's more environmentally friendly, and we'll just use the paper towels for food and composting?
Jam:Yeah. I would love to have used them. I feel like I could see the potential, but it didn't work for a lot of times. So
Melissa:Yeah. It probably is harder too. Like, if you have pets and stuff, like, how many
Jam:of those messes are so gross They are like, I don't wanna Right. But, like, also, we we have used, like, cloth, like, you know, rags on hand towels, something like that For something. So it's like it was kinda like it's a mixture of those 2 things. It's like Mhmm. It's kinda like paper, but kinda like cloth.
Jam:It's more in the middle. We kind of use either or. Yeah. There's a lot of things you can use cloth for and then just wash them with the towels Yeah. And stuff.
Jam:But yeah. I don't know. It it's it's kind of Interesting how I feel like there's probably a sweet spot for these, and maybe we could have really made it work before we had certain things. But, yeah, we had pets we were trying to use them with Back then, that wasn't that was not ideal and stuff like that. But I feel
Melissa:like we mostly use them for, like, like, chemical sprays, which, Which, again, I'm doing that thing, but, like, y'all know what I mean by household chemicals, like kitchen counter spray Yeah. Like, Clorox spray on, like, the not Clorox. What is that? Windex spray on mirrors, if we're, like, dusting down. Now?
Melissa:We use it for that.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:But then we use washcloths for a lot
Jam:of other stuff, and then we use, I don't know what I was gonna say. Everything else?
Melissa:We're starting now to use paper towels again just for the cast iron.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:But we use mostly washcloths for, like, pretty much anything else besides that?
Jam:Yeah. The thing I remember that was frustrating was, we did not ever figure out a good place Or a way of drying them that worked well.
Melissa:Oh, we just dry ours in the dryer.
Jam:See, the first time I did that, maybe it's the ones I bought, it they didn't handle the grape. It was
Melissa:like kinda get weird shapes, but we just pile them up in a place where it doesn't matter that they're weird shaped.
Jam:Yeah. That probably would help. I I would like Really wanted them to be flat again because it's so much easier to store them. So I would put them out, and they would dry. But it was just like, I need, like, a surface To do that, we have a small under room and all that stuff, and it was, like, ended up being, like, all these just all these Swedish clouds are here Drying slowly.
Jam:Yeah. And I can't fold something there now. You know, it just ended up being like and then we would often reach for And then cloth or something
Melissa:paperless instead. I don't know if you're this way, but I have different textures of cloths that I like for different things.
Jam:Mm-mm.
Melissa:It's like, Some things are really good at absorbing, so that's the kind of towel I want to dry my hand. Uh-huh. And some things are really good for scrubbing. So if there's, like, a stain, I'm not gonna get that one. Like, if there's something stuck on the counter Yeah.
Melissa:I feel like it just Adds to the variety of textures of cloth. So we treat them exactly like our other washcloths.
Jam:Got it. Yeah.
Melissa:So they're just like a different vibe. They do other They do some things better than others.
Jam:Yeah. I think the fact that they get they get harder again when they dry, maybe be like, I really want these to be flat. Flat. Yeah.
Melissa:Interesting. But. Okay. Well, that was a big old tangent away from our happy thing for this week.
Jam:Yes. My happy thing still is on this topic, though.
Melissa:So Perfect.
Jam:We Got a tree.
Melissa:Okay. I saw something that looked like a tree in your backyard and was like, was that a tree?
Jam:Yeah. It looks exactly like a tree. But it's weird it's in
Melissa:the middle of a concrete patch, and I could only see the top of it.
Jam:Yep. Yep. So our So
Melissa:you buried in the concrete?
Jam:No. No. I didn't have, but it's not planted yet. But, We got a so our city does this thing. It's just, organization called Keep Denton Beautiful.
Jam:And, every year, they do a tree giveaway, is pretty awesome.
Melissa:That is awesome. I didn't
Jam:know that. All you gotta do is be someone who lives in debt. That's it. Wow. And you have to be able to prove it.
Jam:So, like, have a driver's license or whatever. Yeah. But they you register online, they have a they have a set number of trees and a set number of species of tree each year. And I don't know if it changes or not, but I had put it on my calendar this year because I had missed this several years in the past. And the, like, registration for it went live, on a Tuesday morning a few weeks ago, and I was in I had a meeting booked that time.
Jam:So I could not actually, like, go log in exactly at the time.
Melissa:That's so sad.
Jam:But I got done with the meeting, Went and logged in, and the the there are 2 trees I was kind of stuck between what I wanted to reserve. Mhmm. Both of those were Booked all the way out. Like, it was, like, reserved all of them. Mhmm.
Jam:So I but there was an option for reserving or registering for the wait list. Mhmm. I was like, I'll just do that and see what happens. And so my son and I went, and, they said, like so I got an email. I was like, okay.
Jam:If you're on the wait list, you need to show up at this time. Mhmm. No sooner, because we need, like, a clear, like, gap between people who register for trees and actually I have the have 1 reserved for them Mhmm. And then I got the time, and then wait list folks. So on Saturday, I went and and, Went over to the the area they do this and waited in line and got up there, and they were like, yeah.
Jam:We actually have still have some of all of our trees. People Register for the mega sauce people forget, or they do it just in case, and then maybe for don't wanna actually do it Or fall through? Yeah. Or I don't know, I guess. I'm surprised that that's the case.
Jam:Or maybe they always have a few extra. Who knows? But we really wanted to get a Chou marred, I think it's hard pronounced, or maybe Chou Mar Oak, which is the the tallest tree option they had. Because I'm all about, like, I want to plant a tree, and also I want it to just, like, some person who owns their house someday in the future to be, like, looking at this tree be, like, massive. Mhmm.
Jam:And it just be, like, Man, how old is this tree? Whatever. Yeah. But, like, they had a lot of options, and some people may want a smaller, slightly more decorative tree or whatever. But I'm like, no.
Jam:No. I want a big night street? Last a long time.
Melissa:Uh-huh. I'm gonna look up what it looks like.
Jam:And so they get to be like they can be like a 100 feet tall, I think, something like that, Which is crazy. That is crazy. They had 10 of them left when I got there, and so we got to get one.
Melissa:Oh my god.
Jam:So it's it's been raining today yesterday, but my We're gonna my son and I are gonna plant it, dig a hole and figure out where to where we want it and plant it and draw the stuff. So I've been taking care of it In the meantime, in in the pot it's in, but I'm trying to get it get into some good old soil.
Melissa:Are you thinking front yard or backyard?
Jam:Backyard. Nice. We lost since we lived here, we've lost 3 trees back there that That's
Melissa:so sad.
Jam:Die for different reasons. One of them I think was already there when we moved in. But so I really wanted to put one back there because I'm like, okay. At this rate, that we're losing some trees, I wanna replace some, and maybe I'll try to get one every year. Who knows?
Jam:Yeah. So, anyway, Pretty dang cool.
Melissa:Yeah. Pretty pretty I was trying to do a pretty tree joke, but I couldn't quite get there. Yeah. Pretreating cool?
Jam:Yeah. I I love it. It was good.
Melissa:That's very exciting.
Jam:So, and I've had this I've had this feeling for a while of, like, The trees, especially trees that live a long time, and when they die, it feels like, oh, man. This tree had been here beer? So long. Yeah. And, like, I think one of the reasons that had died when we first moved in, they're like, I'm sure it was either here or very small when this house was built in the sixties.
Jam:Yeah. And there's just this feeling of like, oh, what a loss. Yeah. You know? So I'm like, I wanna plant 1 that's gonna be here a long time.
Jam:Yeah. And I don't know. It's like that cycle of, like, these old trees that die. It's like we gotta be planting trees on a regular basis Like that if we're trying to Yeah. You know, not just have no trees someday.
Jam:So anyway
Melissa:Well, that's exciting. Yeah. Get a go, Denton, for caring about Keeping Dettin' Beautiful?
Jam:Keeping Dettin' Beautiful. And
Melissa:Keeping nice things in nature.
Jam:Yeah. And I thought it'd be cool for my son to be like, oh, I never really planned that tree when I was You know? Yeah. Well, if he if he doesn't remember, I could tell him. Like, you and I did that.
Jam:Yeah. And if we're here a long time and it gets at least somewhat sizable
Melissa:Or, like, the picture of of them with the tree when they're little and it's little and then they're big and it's big?
Jam:Yes. Yeah. That'd be cool.
Melissa:That would be cool. Well, if you have any composting tips, if you have any tree growing tips, or if you have any Swedish dish glass shit tips? We'd love to hear them. So
Jam:Please.
Melissa:Please reach out on Instagram and share your happy things with us because we love it.
Jam:Yes. Yes. We do. Absolutely.
Melissa:And thanks for telling me about that tree program. Probably one day when I have a house, I'll sign up and get one. So that's exciting.
Jam:Do it.
Melissa:And thanks for learning about How sugar and other things dissolve and why we stir stuff when we're trying to dissolve it?
Jam:And thank you for teaching us. And if you have a question or idea for A topic of chemistry in everyday life that you let to share with us. Please do that.
Melissa:Just like Neil.
Jam:Just like Neil. We love y'all's ideas, and some of the best episodes we have have come from you guys. So, reach out to us on our website at kim for your life.com. That's kim, f o r, your life.com to share your thoughts and ideas. If If you'd like to help us keep our show going and contribute to cover the cost of making it, you can go to patreon.com/chem for your life to join our super cool you're not able to do that, you can still help by subscribing on our free podcast app, rating and writing review on Apple Podcasts, or subscribing on our YouTube channel Because that also helps us share chemistry with even more people.
Melissa:That's right. This episode was made possible by our financial supporters over on pay oh, nope. I missed dip? This episode of chemistry for life was made by Melissa Colini and Jam Robinson. Jam Robinson is our producer, and This episode was made possible by our financial supporters over on Patreon.
Melissa:It means so much to us that you want to help make chemistry accessible to even more people. And those supporters on Patreon are Avishai B, Brie M, Brian K, Chris and Claire s, Chelsea B, Derek l, Emerson w, Hunter r, Jacob t, Christina g, Katrina h, Latila s, Lynn s, Melissa p, Nicole c, Rachel r, Steven b, Shadow, Suzanne p, Timothy p, and Venus r. Thank you all again for everything you do to make chemistry for your life happen. And an extra special thanks to Bree who often creates illustrations to go along with episodes of chemistry for your life. You can see those over on the YouTube channel, and You can thank Bree by following and supporting her, and her website and Twitter are listed in our show notes.
Jam:And if you'd like to learn more about today's chemistry lesson, you can Check out the resources in our show notes or in the description of the video on YouTube.
Melissa:Yay chemistry. Yay
