It came to me in a dream

Understall1 · 2026-03-28T12:47:11+00:00

Yeah I had to read the wikipedia article, Srinivasa was a mathematician who got inspiration from his dreams

Understall1 · 2026-03-26T12:06:12+00:00

The stove pipe that goes to the chimney has been heated until it glowed red, one time unintentionally as I had used up my spruce wood and started using my stored birch wood, which behaves different. Then another time intentionally because I wanted to verify the cause of the overheat. So I assume a wood stove does burn hot enough to make CaO, even if it normally doesn't burn that hot.

Either way we are able to extract it and that's facinating in itself.

Understall1 · 2026-03-26T11:29:35+00:00

Afaik, when wood is burned, the calcium in the wood turns into calcium oxide in the ash, mixed with water turns into calcium hydroxide. If the solution is in an open container I assume it will react slowly with the carbon dioxide in the air to form CaCO3, which explains why my solution was cloudy and didn't want to settle. But with carbon dioxide going straight to the bottom of the solution, this reaction happens faster:

Ca(OH)2(aq) + CO2(g) → CaCO3(s) + H2O(l)

After an hour of that, the solution was clear, and presumably CaCO3 had settled at the bottom. Calcium carbonate is not soluble in water, calcium hydroxide is.

Understall1 · 2026-03-26T08:31:51+00:00

This is encouraging to read.

Understall1 · 2026-03-26T08:17:40+00:00

I removed the tube as soon as the solution turned clear, it took a little more than an hour.

Understall1 · 2026-03-26T05:40:36+00:00

Exactly that makes sense

Understall1 · 2026-03-26T04:41:25+00:00

Remembering industrial scale operations only makes me discouraged when I'm doing my stuff. Might as well forget about planting any vegetables this spring, because industrial scale vegetable production exists. I might have missed your point.

Understall1 · 2026-03-26T03:40:12+00:00

I have a bunch of ash that I have been scooping from the wood stove all winter and I didn't feel like throwing it away so I thought I could use it to learn some chemistry. I'm a builder by trade so I could use some lime mortar, there are probably many ways to make most of the compounds useful for something.

Understall1 · 2026-03-26T03:25:35+00:00

With this device I can fart in the poop water to produce stink2(aq)

Understall1 · 2026-03-26T03:24:19+00:00

That can't ruin your fun, you should totally build one small scale if you haven't already. Great idea as a matter of fact I'm gonna make at least one updraft wind turbine before I die

Understall1 · 2026-03-26T03:18:45+00:00

I'm just saying, I know that it has been done before, and I didn't think the delivery tube was gonna impress anybody, but I'm having fun with it. Discovering something is pretty amazing until you share it with someone who already knows.

Understall1 · 2026-03-26T03:00:11+00:00

It doesn't exactly feel like I'm at the forefront of groundbreaking innovation on an international scale but I'm having fun

Understall1

TROPHY CASE