User talk:Sojovictor

 Hello and Welcome to Wikiversity Sojovictor! You can contact us with questions at the colloquium or me personally when you need help. Please remember to sign and date your finished comments when participating in discussions. The signature icon above the edit window makes it simple. All users are expected to abide by our Privacy, Civility, and the Terms of Use policies while at Wikiversity.

To get started, you may


 * Take a guided tour and learn to edit.
 * Visit a (kind of) random project.
 * Browse Wikiversity, or visit a portal corresponding to your educational level: pre-school, primary, secondary, tertiary, non-formal education.
 * Find out about research activities on Wikiversity.
 * Explore Wikiversity with the links to your left.
 * Enable VisualEditor under Beta settings to make article editing easier.


 * Read an introduction for teachers and find out how to write an educational resource for Wikiversity.
 * Give feedback about your initial observations
 * Discuss Wikiversity issues or ask questions at the colloquium.
 * Chat with other Wikiversitans on #wikiversity-en.
 * Follow Wikiversity on twitter (http://twitter.com/Wikiversity) and identi.ca (http://identi.ca/group/wikiversity).

You do not need to be an educator to edit. You only need to be bold to contribute and to experiment with the sandbox or your userpage. See you around Wikiversity! --Marshallsumter (discuss • contribs) 22:02, 11 December 2017 (UTC)

Chemistry
Thanks for your interest in the Chemistry lecture! "Ammonium hydroxide" is a label for a 30 % solution of ammonia in water. This label is recognized as such by Pubchem. Bottles of this concentrated solution are labeled as such in chemistry labs so the figure caption was correct. Please discuss your bold edits on the Discuss page before changing a previous contributors bold edit. --Marshallsumter (discuss • contribs) 22:11, 11 December 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for the suggestions on edits, @Marshallsumter. Regarding the ammonia solution, I disagree. "Ammonium hydroxide" is an obsolete name that IUPAC have recommended abandoning (although I am failing to find the reference for that. There are however explanations for this in almost every modern general chemistry or inorganic chemistry book I've come across). This is also addressed in the Wikipedia article for the compound. The reason is pretty simple and explained in my modification: ammonium hydroxide simply does not exist. There is no way of isolating NH4OH as a salt. Even when in solution, it still does not exist: the vast majority of the ammonia dissolved in water remains as ammonia (NH3), it does not protonate to NH4+ (plus OH- resulting from the proton donated by water HOH). In a 30% solution of ammonia, there's hardly any ammonium (NH4+) and hardly any hydroxide (OH-), at least when compared to the amount of ammonia (NH3). I don't think it's surprising that Pubchem recognises the name since, as you mention, it is still used. But this does not make it any less incorrect. It is also common to talk about "exchange of ions" in introductory chemistry when mixing two aqueous salt solutions, or "exchange of valences" when talking about RedOx; the fact that these are common does not make them right. That's precisely the best thing about sites such as Wikiversity: we can make the necessary changes happen quicker. Having taught for high-school and first-year students, I have repeatedly experienced their confusion and frustration with the name "ammonium hydroxide". They expect it to be analogous to ammonium chloride or sodium hydroxide, and it simply is not. It adds an extra layer of complication to explaining chemical equilibria that does not need to be there. I do not say the name is not used; surely it is unfortunately widely used and any chemist would recognise it. I simply say that most chemists would agree (at least after some consideration) that the name gives an incorrect description about the compound and its solution, and should therefore not be used. Significantly, this is not the same as an old name such as "benzene", "water", or "ammonia". This is actually a wrong name that conveys an incorrect and confusing idea, particularly to newcomers (who are precisely the most likely to be using this site). I will not change it again, but I do believe it should be changed. (Sojovictor (discuss • contribs) 12:09, 12 December 2017 (UTC)


 * I understand the chemistry of "Ammonium Hydroxide". Here's my response from the Chemistry Discuss page: "Actually, it isn't a right or wrong! It's a common convention! The bottle label in the image reads "Ammonium Hydroxide". Here's why: Ammonium Hydroxide, so please put the image caption back the way I had it. If User:Sojovictor would like to add a section to the lecture describing "Ammonium Hydroxide", the user is free to do so as long as it's not a wikipedia copy, but the image correctly shows the bottle label that often appears. And Pubchem correctly describes what the label pertains to." If commons wants to update the image, that would be great! But, if not, this is a good opportunity to add your comments above to address your concerns in a section to the lecture describing "Ammonium Hydroxide", but the bottle label reads "Ammonium Hydroxide" and the image is free media so the image caption must match. I hope this helps! --Marshallsumter (discuss • contribs) 22:11, 12 December 2017 (UTC)


 * I've moved the image to the section on Analytical chemistry with a compromise figure caption. Please feel free to include your description above with references to help others understand about "Ammonium Hydroxide" and the others you've mentioned above. --Marshallsumter (discuss • contribs) 00:58, 13 December 2017 (UTC)