Scientific Puzzles.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 3 April 1914, Page 2

Scientific Puzzles.

I —<— ■■ ! Everyone knows that the diamond is only charcoal crystalized; but there are a great many other things in Nature that, though possessing widely different. properties, are composed of exactly equal quantities of. the same elements. The white of an egg and rattlesnake poison are formed of identi- A. cally the same amounts of the ; same elements. j The oil of roses and common coal gas are each formed alike, ■ both being composed of four atoms of hydrogen and four atoms of ' carbon. Sugar and gum arabic are likewise brothers of the same weight and texture. All the hydrocarbons, known to j science as a combination of sixteen atoms of hydrogen and ten * atoms of carbon, are alike in their -J^ ■ composition. To enumerate some : Oil of orange, lemon, cloves, ginger, j and black pepper. ■ i The suggested explanation of these peculiarities is that the atoms are ' placed differently toward one an- : other in the molecules of the differ- : ent substances. , i Other things just as peculiar are ! evident when certain substances are | united chemically. Thus hydrogen gas, which is odourless, when united go to make ammonia, which has a very strong odour. Copper, which has m odour, «,nd zinc, which -w also has none, when melted and mixed <o g*v« v* brass, produce a substance t-itb a. characteristic smell.