The chemical symbol for fire???

Off-topic conversations and chit-chat.

23 posts Page 1 of 2
I was reminded today of this conversation between the advertising brand team for a consumer product that we were working on and the scientist (Tom) involved with it.

I have a screen capture of it somewhere but in summary it went like this.

Brand team - Hi Tom

Tom - Hi

Brand team - The chemical symbol for water is H2O, right?

Tom - Er - yes

Brand team - So what is the chemical symbol for fire?

Tom - ????

Brand team - We are just exploring some concepts

Tom - OK - the symbol is HOT

Brand team - Great - thanks

Regards

Ralph
Regards

Ralph
Which begs the question, "What is the chemical symbol for Brimstone?"
The two are often found together.
I'm trying to imagine 'chemical' symbols for earth and air now... perhaps one for quintessence as well?
:D nice one!

I bet that the brand team would love to add "contains essential Quintessence" ( in addition to, "contains silk extract, minerals, Vitamin E, co-enzyme Q10, Argan oil, wheat protein") all of which are added at homoeopathic levels to give a strap line claim on the product. We call them emotives.

I might even suggest it to them :-) It's got a kind of a good ring to it.

Thanks

Ralph
Regards

Ralph
Wife wanted to know why there was a picture of "a submarine" on the instrument cluster of her 2005 Yukon.
Image

She has a Master's Degree.
Love it!

Image

"We all live in a Yellow Submarine"

Regards

Ralph (near Beatles home town Liverpool)



What are the vintage vehicles that you work on?
Regards

Ralph
In your wife's defense, I'm not sure how you're supposed to know that that picture is an engine other than some lucky guesses or assumptions... of course, not that I could draw an engine any better...
You could try telling her it means that the engine has flooded :twisted:
Regards

Ralph
Bring back phlogiston. That should really get the marketing group going.
GOM wrote:
What are the vintage vehicles that you work on?


They're not "that" vintage. But where I live there is very little rust, so I'm not talking rusted heaps here, even 50 year old vehicles here are not rusted.

My daily driver is a 1988 Mazda B2200 Cab Plus truck, purchased in 1994 when my youngest was able to move into a toddler seat and crawl into it, and all I had to do was snap the safety bar in place. It has 209K miles on it now, does the jobs I need it too, but with 85 hp it does not go up Interstate mountain upgrades too well.

I also drive my 1971 VW Convertible, bought in 1976 for $1300 (yes, $1300 USD). It has in it now the 1835cc powerful engine I built back in 1986. In 2003 the stock original 1600cc engine had a 6mm oil stud vibrate out while Mrs. CPG was driving my daughter home from softball while I was with youngest daughter at LL baseball game; she was scared, kept driving with red light on and gauge at zero, until it stalled out. Next day, it still started after I added bolt and added oil, no knocking; but there were curved bearing slivers on the oil screen so I knew there was severe damage, but we kept driving it with no bearing knocking for next 4 years, until I just decided to install the not-used at the time 1835cc engine. This is on classic insurance, so even better now that I have no "work commute" for the insurance company to have in case they ever wanted to fight a claim. Yes, Mrs. CPG decreased the lifetime of my 32-year-old engine!!!


I still have my original car, a 1970 VW I bought in late 1972 while in college, I retired that in 1993 with 260K on it because I had too many vehicles and the insurance was a big factor with little kids to feed. So to get that going I need to tear down and rebuild the damaged engine referenced above; if the convertible would ever want to be a show car, then considerably more valuable if that original number engine was in it.

I still have the 1998 Frontier regular cab I bought in 2004 with 100K for the kids to drive; sneaky, that made them learn manual transmission, and restricted them to 1 passenger. That all was planned, sneaky and I'm proud of it. It now has 206K on it and my kids are grown up and it has been returned to me, so Mrs. CPG drives it around town, and I take it up north when I drive by myself (more hp than the Mazda truck).

I also have a 2004 Frontier with 90K bought in 2011 from a departing co-worker, as "future replacement" for the Mazda truck.

I do 99% of my own maintenance and repair on these, worked as a VW mechanic in 1974-1975, has helped to do HPLC troubleshooting well, and similar. And likely helped me save $400 here, $300 there on every repair, and similarly has helped me learn washer/dryer/refrigerator repairs too (buy parts over Internet for those).
CPG - you are a redundant analytical chemist who can fix old vehicles - if you ever fancy a move to Botswana I could use both your talents ! You can run samples in the lab and fix old landrovers in the field. Check out http://www.bpctrust.org/

Peter
Peter Apps
Consumer Products Guy wrote:
GOM wrote:
What are the vintage vehicles that you work on?


They're not "that" vintage. But where I live there is very little rust, so I'm not talking rusted heaps here, even 50 year old vehicles here are not rusted.

My daily driver is a 1988 Mazda B2200 Cab Plus truck, purchased in 1994 when my youngest was able to move into a toddler seat and crawl into it, and all I had to do was snap the safety bar in place. It has 209K miles on it now, does the jobs I need it too, but with 85 hp it does not go up Interstate mountain upgrades too well.

I also drive my 1971 VW Convertible, bought in 1976 for $1300 (yes, $1300 USD). It has in it now the 1835cc powerful engine I built back in 1986. In 2003 the stock original 1600cc engine had a 6mm oil stud vibrate out while Mrs. CPG was driving my daughter home from softball while I was with youngest daughter at LL baseball game; she was scared, kept driving with red light on and gauge at zero, until it stalled out. Next day, it still started after I added bolt and added oil, no knocking; but there were curved bearing slivers on the oil screen so I knew there was severe damage, but we kept driving it with no bearing knocking for next 4 years, until I just decided to install the not-used at the time 1835cc engine. This is on classic insurance, so even better now that I have no "work commute" for the insurance company to have in case they ever wanted to fight a claim. Yes, Mrs. CPG decreased the lifetime of my 32-year-old engine!!!


I still have my original car, a 1970 VW I bought in late 1972 while in college, I retired that in 1993 with 260K on it because I had too many vehicles and the insurance was a big factor with little kids to feed. So to get that going I need to tear down and rebuild the damaged engine referenced above; if the convertible would ever want to be a show car, then considerably more valuable if that original number engine was in it.

I still have the 1998 Frontier regular cab I bought in 2004 with 100K for the kids to drive; sneaky, that made them learn manual transmission, and restricted them to 1 passenger. That all was planned, sneaky and I'm proud of it. It now has 206K on it and my kids are grown up and it has been returned to me, so Mrs. CPG drives it around town, and I take it up north when I drive by myself (more hp than the Mazda truck).

I also have a 2004 Frontier with 90K bought in 2011 from a departing co-worker, as "future replacement" for the Mazda truck.

I do 99% of my own maintenance and repair on these, worked as a VW mechanic in 1974-1975, has helped to do HPLC troubleshooting well, and similar. And likely helped me save $400 here, $300 there on every repair, and similarly has helped me learn washer/dryer/refrigerator repairs too (buy parts over Internet for those).


You sound a lot like me. I am currently driving an 85 Jeep Cherokee I bought from a co-worker who had it sitting in his yard for about 7 years. I had to replace the ignition module and bypass the one wire going to the dead computer but it runs like a top now and I drive it daily. It really works great in the snow we have been having lately. My other vehicle is a 96 F150 that I bought in December 1996, so soon I will have owned it 20 years. Only work I have not done myself was replacing the throwout bearing because I just didn't have the equipment at the time.

Growing up on a farm and doing repair work and some redneck engineering to make what equipment we didn't have or nobody actually made but we needed I think was the best prep work I could get for working in the analytical lab. Unlike many of my co-workers I am not afraid to tear into a $250k piece of equipment and find out what is broken, fix it, or make "improvements".
The past is there to guide us into the future, not to dwell in.
Consumer Products Guy wrote:
GOM wrote:
What are the vintage vehicles that you work on?


They're not "that" vintage. But where I live there is very little rust, so I'm not talking rusted heaps here, even 50 year old vehicles here are not rusted.

My daily driver is a 1988 Mazda B2200 Cab Plus truck, purchased in 1994 when my youngest was able to move into a toddler seat and crawl into it, and all I had to do was snap the safety bar in place. It has 209K miles on it now, does the jobs I need it too, but with 85 hp it does not go up Interstate mountain upgrades too well.

I also drive my 1971 VW Convertible, bought in 1976 for $1300 (yes, $1300 USD). It has in it now the 1835cc powerful engine I built back in 1986. In 2003 the stock original 1600cc engine had a 6mm oil stud vibrate out while Mrs. CPG was driving my daughter home from softball while I was with youngest daughter at LL baseball game; she was scared, kept driving with red light on and gauge at zero, until it stalled out. Next day, it still started after I added bolt and added oil, no knocking; but there were curved bearing slivers on the oil screen so I knew there was severe damage, but we kept driving it with no bearing knocking for next 4 years, until I just decided to install the not-used at the time 1835cc engine. This is on classic insurance, so even better now that I have no "work commute" for the insurance company to have in case they ever wanted to fight a claim. Yes, Mrs. CPG decreased the lifetime of my 32-year-old engine!!!


I still have my original car, a 1970 VW I bought in late 1972 while in college, I retired that in 1993 with 260K on it because I had too many vehicles and the insurance was a big factor with little kids to feed. So to get that going I need to tear down and rebuild the damaged engine referenced above; if the convertible would ever want to be a show car, then considerably more valuable if that original number engine was in it.

I still have the 1998 Frontier regular cab I bought in 2004 with 100K for the kids to drive; sneaky, that made them learn manual transmission, and restricted them to 1 passenger. That all was planned, sneaky and I'm proud of it. It now has 206K on it and my kids are grown up and it has been returned to me, so Mrs. CPG drives it around town, and I take it up north when I drive by myself (more hp than the Mazda truck).

I also have a 2004 Frontier with 90K bought in 2011 from a departing co-worker, as "future replacement" for the Mazda truck.

I do 99% of my own maintenance and repair on these, worked as a VW mechanic in 1974-1975, has helped to do HPLC troubleshooting well, and similar. And likely helped me save $400 here, $300 there on every repair, and similarly has helped me learn washer/dryer/refrigerator repairs too (buy parts over Internet for those).


You sound a lot like me. I am currently driving an 85 Jeep Cherokee I bought from a co-worker who had it sitting in his yard for about 7 years. I had to replace the ignition module and bypass the one wire going to the dead computer but it runs like a top now and I drive it daily. It really works great in the snow we have been having lately. My other vehicle is a 96 F150 that I bought in December 1996, so soon I will have owned it 20 years. Only work I have not done myself was replacing the throwout bearing because I just didn't have the equipment at the time.

Growing up on a farm and doing repair work and some redneck engineering to make what equipment we didn't have or nobody actually made but we needed I think was the best prep work I could get for working in the analytical lab. Unlike many of my co-workers I am not afraid to tear into a $250k piece of equipment and find out what is broken, fix it, or make "improvements".
The past is there to guide us into the future, not to dwell in.
James_Ball wrote:
Growing up on a farm and doing repair work and some redneck engineering to make what equipment we didn't have or nobody actually made but we needed I think was the best prep work I could get for working in the analytical lab. Unlike many of my co-workers I am not afraid to tear into a $250k piece of equipment and find out what is broken, fix it, or make "improvements".


Hallelujah to that ! Anyone we hire under the age of 40 seems to have grown up in a culture of "if it breaks buy another one, or get someone else to fix it". Even really minor problems like loose wires are beyond them.

Peter
Peter Apps
Ain't that the truth!
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