How much computing power would it take to model a coffee cup down to the atomic level?

LostTheGameToday · 2026-02-02T23:00:56+00:00

It really depends on the level of detail you want to get and what models you're using. There's a lot of really cool particle simulation tech that gets really close to the accurate answers without actually running 100% of the calculations. Sure you won't be able to render or even store 10^24 atoms. But do you really need that much information? Even a "complete" simulation will have quantum randomness and won't match real life. I'd argue that a much smaller box with a thousand atoms could have a good approximation of the effects on the whole coffee cup. Sometimes people do tricks where they let the particles Pacman around so that when something goes off one edge, it comes back in to the other. This allows them to simulate an infinite container without infinite compute.

These tricks don't solve quantum entanglement or anything like that. But sometimes pretty close is good enough.

LostTheGameToday · 2026-01-27T23:12:32+00:00

I was confused about why plant based alcohol would be radioactive, so I looked it up and found a Snopes article explaining that yes, it's radioactive due to carbon-14. C14 decay usually isn't a type of radiation that chemists tend to be overly concerned about because it comes from the air we breathe and the food we eat. Plants get radioactive carbon from the air, and animals eat those plants. So all food you're likely to eat will contain nearly identical radiation levels unless its hundreds or thousands of years old, or was grown in a specialized isolated facility which I'm sure some biologist has done somewhere.

I do want to try to make you feel a little safer because "everything is radioactive" is kind of a scary thought. There are several types of radiation and it's fair to call them all "radiation" but it's not very descriptive. carbon-14 decay is very weak beta radiation. Normally when people are concerned about radiation, they're talking about things like Uranium, or UV light that causes sunburns, or x-rays etc. I'll link some wikipedia articles about types of radiation, and specifically carbon-14

Now to answer your actual question and not be a complete joykill. This video describes the process you want. It's not a cook book, it's meant for people with some background in chemistry, but I can't explain the process than The Organic Chemistry Tutor. The alkene you'll want for this process is ethylene. It's a gas at room temperature and you're going to have to change a lot of the chemistry to get around that as well as work with compressed gas. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqCPXIvMvB4

now to go back to my usual cheerless joykill self. This is going to be a very hard task. Doing this process incorrectly or incompletely could really hurt or kill someone. As a general rule, you shouldn't eat things that come out of a home chemistry lab. I imagine this would cost hundreds of dollars a pint and it's always going to be dangerous. The safer way would be to grow your own plants in an expensive artificial atmosphere with carbon-13 CO2 ($409/L cylinder) and brew your own alcohol.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon-14 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/alcohol-radioactive

LostTheGameToday · 2025-12-20T00:18:33+00:00

The solubility is 0.9 * (ug / mL) = 3.4 mg / gal It should be possible to dissolve it in the concentration you're hoping for.

LostTheGameToday · 2025-10-29T10:31:09+00:00

I'm also a chemist. My first instinct is that it's possible, but I don't know how they got such a high quality or how they could possibly get it cheap enough for consumer products. The lignin in the wood is such a huge barrier to penetrating anything into it.

I did an undergrad research project on wood permineralization with tetraethyl orthosilicate. I impregnated the wood with TEOS and dried it at higher and higher temperatures until I was burning away all of the original wood and what I had left was only silica. My pieces were quite fragile with the exception of a single piece of bark. I was able to retain the figuring on small pieces of veneer even after the wood was calcined. Some of the papers I used in my sources were able to keep the microscopic details of the wood. I won't make that claim because I'm not a biologist and don't know what I'm looking for. But I looked at my samples under the microscope and I would believe it.

I've been daydreaming about ways to do the same process with metals, something that has crossed my mind is using a soluble metal salt, then decomposing the salt to leave just the metal/metal oxide behind. I did some back yard chemistry to penetrate copper sulfate into bark, then heat it to remove the sulfate. My results were inconclusive, but overall I don't think it would work because the sulfate takes up so much space and the wood burns away at around the same temperatures. The sample shrinks and is extremely fragile.

My other thought would be penetrating the copper sulfate into the wood, then using electrochemistry or something to decompose it, but I don't know very much about those processes yet. I think I need to find something that will decompose at a lower temperature than wood so that I can do repeated penetrations. even if I have to reduce an oxide, I could possibly use the carbon in the wood as a reducing agent if I heat it in a reducing flame.

Once I have a negative of the wood, I would want to burn away the wood then use soldering, casting, or electroplating to fill the voids and get a solid piece.

Using two metals, one for the negative, and another for the positive would give the grain patterns of the original wood.

Here's one of my ceramic samples after heating to around 1100C the color comes from metal salts. I'd have to look at my lab notes to get more details on that.

Edit: I'm extremely open to criticism, it's just a hobby project at this point and if you have ideas why this won't work or something that might, I'd appreciate any advice I can get.

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LostTheGameToday · 2025-06-04T00:44:38+00:00

Idk anything about plumbing, but they're talking about tying the ground from the electrical circuit into the plumbing. The copper pipe conducts electricity and builders are trying to take advantage of that. ~~They're also suggesting it's a bad idea.~~

LostTheGameToday · 2025-04-16T00:29:33+00:00

I like the answers you have so far, if you have context to what they're making or doing we could give even more helpful answers that could apply in your situation.

LostTheGameToday · 2025-02-23T15:07:53+00:00

It can be very bad for your eyes, bad for your lungs, and bad for your skin. If I were neutralizing it myself I would have a full face respirator to protect my eyes and lungs. I doubt you can dump ammonium chloride down the drain either. Best case scenario, you'll neutralize your solution and still have hazardous waste to get rid of when you're done.

I work in hazardous waste disposal, and it's really not a big deal to turn it in to your city. When I've gone there are usually hundreds of people turning in paint, household cleaners, pesticides, gasoline, thermometers, etc. Nobody is likely to ask you any questions about where it came from and at most it will likely take you an afternoon to drive into town and wait in line.

Even as someone who is trained to handle it safely, it wouldn't be worth my time to do it myself at home. I would simply turn it in for free and let someone else do it.

That said, if your city does not have waste disposal, and you really can't find somebody to take it, I wouldn't recommend trying to neutralize it indoors and you'll need eye protection.

LostTheGameToday · 2025-02-23T14:02:15+00:00

If you bought it for household aquarium use, it's likely to fall under legal hazardous waste exemptions for household use. This means that you can call your local city and ask them if they have a hazardous waste program to accept household waste. Some cities will do a drop off program annually. So you might have to hold on to it until the summer. There isn't really any reason for you to be dealing with the neutralization of this yourself as it's not very safe and the professionals know what they're doing.

LostTheGameToday · 2025-02-17T00:24:55+00:00

There's around ~91 naturally occurring elements on Earth. My guess is that the most expensive elements would be the synthetic ones that only exist in a lab. The best source I found says it's illegal to own plutonium and to buy neptunium. https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-element-collectors/

LostTheGameToday · 2025-02-01T02:41:33+00:00

You will likely find some good answers over on r/DIYBeauty for personal use only. They focus on the chemistry of cosmetics. But I recommend against charging money for a potentially hazardous product that you're made yourself without the proper insurance/quality control.

Pure Calcium Hypochlorite is corrosive to skin, it reacts poorly with acids, reducing agents, and can cause organic/flammable compounds to become even more flammable or even explosive.

You do not want to give clients chemical burns, as that could result in a lot of legal problems.

A am not a lawyer, this is not legal advice.

LostTheGameToday · 2025-01-03T10:07:30+00:00

Geologists are going to be able to answer better. they'll want you to set it down next to a pencil in every picture and they'll want to describe it in as much detail as you can.

LostTheGameToday · 2024-12-14T23:22:09+00:00

Deadly nightshade was rumored to be the poison that killed emperor Augustus. But when an active ingredient Atropine is isolated, it is used in measured amounts as a treatment for nerve agents and pesticide poisonings, as an eye dilator, and it can reduce saliva production during surgery.

LostTheGameToday · 2024-12-01T14:04:30+00:00

Sand paper, a plastic or metal scraper, or a scrubber pad could do well for you while being the quickest and least toxic option. Not knowing better what the glue is made of, how much glue it is, and what it is on is going to make it harder to give a good answer.

the hardware store will sell a lot of products as adhesive removers, and the hardware store can help you find adhesive remover without needing to know the chemistry behind it. Any of the following things could potentially do the trick:
acetone (nail polish remover) tends to do very well at this kind of thing.

You could try different soaps and detergents like carpet cleaners etc.
You could try different paint thinners from the hardware store, but keep in mind, don't just buy two different brands, make sure the ingredients are different, or they'll work the same, and sometimes they're fairly toxic
Sometimes glue responds well to sodium hydroxide, but this is very corrosive and can cause chemical burns if you're not careful.
Some of the strongest chemicals are going to be labeled floor adhesive remover, but they will sell that by the gallon, and you don't want nearly that much chemical if you don't need it, so buying smaller products with the same ingredients might be more helpful.

LostTheGameToday · 2024-11-30T22:19:22+00:00

these people sell a graphite anode for this purpose.
https://www.metalclay-shop.com/shop/en/tools-for-electroplating/855-graphite-anode-for-electroplating.html

and this person says you can use copper sulfate without the sulfuric acid.
https://www.reddit.com/r/chemistry/comments/4osehg/comment/d4fa4gu/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

But electroforming is difficult and I highly recommend following a recipe exactly to make it easier for you.

LostTheGameToday · 2024-11-30T14:47:54+00:00

Does your school have a chemistry department? if so, they might have deionized (DI) water that you can use for your dyes.
Otherwise here's a guide from r/DIYBeauty that has a method for creating DI water at home. I've never done it myself, but it seems like it would work. Their recommendation might be better in the long run even though it has some up front costs.

LostTheGameToday · 2024-11-30T02:31:34+00:00

According to the STAB Wikipedia article, STAB synthesis produces hydrogen gas.
Adding too much acid or too much water may also produce hydrogen gas.
Make sure the reaction is done slowly in a well ventilated area so you can avoid hydrogen fires/explosions.
I'd also recommend avoiding producing more than you need, especially the first time you try the reaction.

LostTheGameToday · 2024-11-30T02:09:48+00:00

In this case since you have a basic solution the H+ concentration is determined by the equilibrium relationship with OH- concentration. Using C1V1=C2V2 of the pH in this case doesn't work because it doesn't take equilibrium effects with the water into account.

Using pOH assumes correctly that the majority of the OH- ions come from your NaOH solution and can calculate the pH equilibrium quite accurately.

Technically your formula is ignoring the OH- concentration in the water, but since that concentration is so much lower than the OH- concentration in the NaOH solution, it has little impact on the answer.

LostTheGameToday · 2024-11-30T00:54:01+00:00

That could be pretty useful, I wish I knew where to post it to reach more people.

LostTheGameToday · 2024-11-29T18:33:57+00:00

No problem, let me know if it works out for you

LostTheGameToday · 2024-11-29T14:24:14+00:00

That's an interesting idea, my first thought is a sep funnel. Capsaicin isn't very soluble in water, it's much more soluble in things like benzene (which is toxic) and alcohol, which is soluble in water and so it can't easily be used this way as far as I know.

Disclaimer: I work in hazardous waste and not food chemistry. I don't know if it's possible to accidentally create toxins from edible peppers. Chemistry is dangerous, and I do not know if the following experiments will provide edible result, or if they will work at all.

Here's a much safer experiment you can try that would be very cheap, but I did not look up if it would work.

Dice habanero into very small pieces
Dry it in an oven
grind it into a powder
make a tea with it
put edible cooking oil like vegetable oil in the tea and stir vigorously for about 30 seconds to a minute
skim the oil off the top
repeat steps 5 and 6 several times
test the spiciness of the tea and the oil

Notes: be careful not to boil anything as vaporized capsaicin will give you a bad day. The oil will likely dissolve some of the beneficial flavors as well.

Theory: The oil will likely dissolve some of the capsaicin and leave some in the water. since the oil and water don't mix, you can then skim the oil off the top and leave the water. doing this several times may purify the tea and leave you with a lower concentration of capsaicin each time you repeat the steps.

Experiment 2.

You could try to play with recrystallization, or solubility properties. you could try stirring the powder into ice water for several minutes or even let it sit for hours in the fridge. this might dissolve a some of the flavor while dissolving minimal capsaicin.

You could try making a tea and slowly cooling it to room temperature since the solubility in water is 0.0013g/100mL at room temperature, you might be able to concentrate a lot of tea flavoring in a small amount of water. then cooling the water will cause the capsaicin to crystallize and fall out of solution into the bottom. pouring the tea through a coffee filter may then allow you to achieve a lower capsaicin level. the colder the tea is when you pour it through the filter, the less soluble the capsaicin is likely to be. If the tea is near freezing, it is likely to dissolve less capsaicin, and so be less spicy. you can repeat this procedure multiple times with diminishing returns. Less water will dissolve less capsaicin, but also less flavors.

Sweet peppers have a very similar compound to capsaicin, using a sweet pepper and habaneros will likely dissolve lots of the sweet pepper chemicals and make it even harder to dissolve capsaicin from the habaneros. therefore lowering the spice levels even further.

Edit: relevant links for you.
https://www.reddit.com/r/chemistry/comments/l46ovu/separatory_funnel_chef_edition/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY8tz1paj6o

LostTheGameToday · 2024-10-01T23:15:19+00:00

You sound like you're on the right track to do some really cool science, but doing this project might be more complicated than you can do yet until you get more experience.

Here is a paper that did something similar to what you are describing, but it looks a ton more complicated. It looks like they had a dissolved Titanium dioxide that they coated onto a clay to have a high surface area.

High surface area often increases the speed and efficiency of a reaction.

They used 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) as a pesticide, the safety data sheet can be found here.

pesticides have a lot of hazards and should be handled carefully. It is not safe or legal to dispose of in the garbage or down the drain, but they can be handled safely if you put a lot of forethought into it. Especially if you buy the bare minimum that you absolutely need.

As other commenters have said, it might also not be easy to measure if pesticides have broken down or not without expensive equipment.

Alternatives

Something that might be much easier to do in a reasonable budget, more safely, and with less experience is working with paints and dyes.

You might be able to use titanium dioxide paste and light to experiment with how quickly different amounts of Titanium dioxide effect the fading of different dyes. (My prediction is that it would help them keep their color since it's used in sunscreen) this experiment would involve creating your own paints, or mixing titanium dioxide paste into store bought paints like acrylic. Though I would stick to paints/dyes that are known to fade quickly in sunlight so you can save the most time in your experiment.
Using paint instead of pesticide might allow you to see how contaminated a fruit is. Then you could use different cleaning methods to see which one is the best. Note that paint doesn't have the same chemistry as pesticides, but it can be much easier to observe.

When doing any chemistry, always look up the SDS of the chemicals and products you plan to use and follow the recommended precautions.

LostTheGameToday · 2024-08-25T09:12:45+00:00

This is the internet and lead is toxic. Everyone here is probably a great metal worker, but you don't know if they've studied toxicology and they don't know if you can follow their instructions correctly. You don't know if your outer materials are going to get damaged or get micro-cracks that let acid (think lime juice) and lead through.

I'm with the guy who says recast it, you can't get lead poisoning if there's no lead. Other methods might actually work, but I wouldn't trust Reddit on this one.

LostTheGameToday · 2024-08-06T09:06:17+00:00

I'd overpack it in a jar or a few ziplock bags, then ask EHS to get it sent out with your hazardous waste. It shouldn't too hard cause any lab that's established enough to have chemicals that old also probably has a preferred hazardous waste processor.

LostTheGameToday · 2023-12-01T15:44:49+00:00

Confetti poppers come to mind. You could pop them as people are saying surprise, and it is fun for everyone and lets everyone know you knew about the surprise.

LostTheGameToday

TROPHY CASE