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| Author |
Message |
| 12 new of 36 responses total. |
valerie
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response 25 of 36:
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Nov 25 23:10 UTC 1997 |
This response has been erased.
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i
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response 26 of 36:
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Nov 26 03:33 UTC 1997 |
Soccer balls are covered by a mix of hexagons & pentagons. From a math
point of view, fullerenes are just graphite with enough defects in the
2-dimensional crystalline latice to curve them back on themselves to
closure. That "4th" carbon bond does about the same thing in fullerines
as it does in graphite sheets. (i think it's more likely to point toward
the outside for bond-bond angle reasons.)
i've no soccer ball on hand either. My recollection is that the 12
pentagonal faces of a soccer ball are regularly arranged on it's surface
(the rest of the faces are hexagons). Another way to visualize it is
as a solid (regular) 20-hedron with the 12 "points" sanded down until
they're pentagonal faces. 60 vertices, 90 edges, 32 sides according to
the old v+s=e+2 formula.
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orinoco
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response 27 of 36:
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Nov 26 04:52 UTC 1997 |
I do belive that the 'soccer-ball' shape is the result of lopping a little
bit off all the corners of an icosahedron. The new faces that are made where
the corners were are pentagons, and the triangles that got their corners
lopped off turn into hexagons. There's a fancy geometric name for this beast,
but I don't know it.
As for the bet, can I play?
(And now, off to find some rubbing alcohol)
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rcurl
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response 28 of 36:
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Nov 26 08:14 UTC 1997 |
Carbon has four "bonds", but bonds can be "double", so each carbon in
C60 is bonded to only three other carbons and there are no free bonds.
In fact, however, the extra electrons of the "double" bonds are delocalized.
This leads to considerable stability of the structure, in the way benzene
is stabilized.
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orinoco
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response 29 of 36:
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Dec 2 02:42 UTC 1997 |
I do belive I've solved it....here goes...
X-----------------------X The X's are vertices of the 'soccer ball', or
|\ /| in this case carbon atoms. Consider a soccer
| X-----X-------X-----X | ball, turned so that one of the pentagonal
| | | | | | faces is on top - in this diagram, the face
| X-X---X-X---X-X---X-X | with an asterisk in the middle. Another
| | | | | | | | pentagonal face will be on the bottom - in
| | X---X-X-X-X-X---X | | this diagram, the five connected vertices at
| | | | | | | | | the far outside edge. In between are hexagons
| | X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X | | and pentagons which have been deformed to
| | | | | * | | | | | 'fit' the rows and columns of text. 60
| X-X X-X-X---X-X-X X-X | vertices, 90 edges, 32 sides; 12 pentagons,
| | | | | | | | | | 20 hexagons - I do belive this is it.
| | | | X-------X | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
| | X-X-X-X---X-X-X-X | |
| | | | | | | |
| X-X-----X X-----X-X |
|/ \ / \|
X-----------X-----------X
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rcurl
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response 30 of 36:
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Dec 2 02:58 UTC 1997 |
Amazing....I do believe you've done it, too. Now, kick that around a while...
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snowth
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response 31 of 36:
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Dec 2 05:10 UTC 1997 |
<Tricia shakes her head at orin's geekyness, and goes off to wash some
socks.>
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valerie
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response 32 of 36:
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Dec 4 16:21 UTC 1997 |
This response has been erased.
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orinoco
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response 33 of 36:
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Dec 4 22:21 UTC 1997 |
That's the problem - I kicked it around for too long, and it went flat.
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snowth
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response 34 of 36:
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Dec 7 18:37 UTC 1997 |
<As far as the eye can see, hundreds of little soccer balls shrinking, yelling
"help me! I'm melting! Melting!">
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orinoco
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response 35 of 36:
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Dec 14 18:49 UTC 1997 |
You know, that's a really strange mental image...
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rcurl
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response 36 of 36:
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Dec 14 20:01 UTC 1997 |
Say, what's the melting point of C60 crystals? I know it can be recrystallized
from benzene, and the melting point is above room temperature, though I
would expect it to be rather low (due to the relative lack of polarity
of the molecule).
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