Where's The F? Lanthanum's Identity Crisis

The speedometer shows 100 mph because inorganic chemists refuse to leave a single element unexplored. "I paid for the whole Periodic Table, I'm gonna use the whole Periodic Table" is basically the chemist's version of getting your money's worth. While organic chemists are playing with carbon and hydrogen like they're running a limited menu restaurant, inorganic chemists are over here like "Give me that ruthenium-selenium complex with a dash of ytterbium, please." Nothing says scientific dedication quite like synthesizing compounds that have no business existing just because you can.

Content Asteroid 33 Polyhymnia May Contain Elements Outside The Periodic Table (FL IFL Science • 1 T

This textbook is basically saying "when your number is so massive it's stopped caring about small-time additions." Avogadro's number (10 23 ) is so ridiculously huge that adding 23 to it is like throwing a grain of sand into the Grand Canyon and expecting the tour guide to update the brochure. And then there's the "very large numbers" that are so astronomically gigantic they don't even notice when you multiply them by mere billions upon billions. It's the numerical equivalent of a celebrity too famous to acknowledge your existence. These numbers have transcended mathematical anxiety - they're just out there living their best life, completely unbothered by our operations. The footnote about "keeping track of leftover factors" is the textbook equivalent of a nervous laugh after making a dad joke at a faculty meeting.

The chemistry wordplay here is absolutely brilliant! The doctor tells the patient his body has run out of magnesium (Mg on the periodic table). The patient responds with "0mg" - which looks like "Omg" (Oh my god), but it's actually "zero Mg" (no magnesium left)! It's a perfect double meaning that works on both levels - a shocked reaction AND a literal statement about his magnesium deficiency. Chemistry jokes have such great reactions !

The chemical warfare between peppers and humans is deliciously ironic! Peppers evolved capsaicin as a defense mechanism to discourage mammals from eating them (while birds, who don't feel the burn and can spread seeds far, get a free pass). But humans? We're the weird masochists of the animal kingdom who turned this defense chemical into a culinary challenge. It's evolution's greatest plot twist - the peppers scream "this will hurt you!" and we respond "that's the point!" The Skeletor reaction perfectly captures our bizarre relationship with spicy food - we're literally in pain but coming back for more. Nature designed a perfect defense system only for humans to completely miss the memo.

Dating in the chemistry world is brutal. Poor cyclohexane tries to match with someone who's looking for "a guy like this" while showing a boat conformation drawing. The irony? Cyclohexane IS literally that structure—just drawn in chair conformation instead. It's the molecular equivalent of being rejected for wearing different clothes when you're the exact same person. Chemistry students everywhere just felt that burn in their C-H bonds.