10th Grade Assignments: History, Ecology, and Chemistry Problems

Assignments for 10th Grade
History
When and where was the first factory for the production of phosphorus matches in Russia built?
In 1749 M.V. Lomonosov wrote a dissertation “On the Birth of Saltpeter in Nature.”
Which substance did M.V. Lomonosov write about in the dissertation and what was it used for?
“Syrus Smith…. Decided to set up a frame of trestles over the pit containing that substance and to suspend an iron beam from them by a cord braided from lianas. Having done this, Cyrus Smith set fire to the free end of the cord, which had been soaked with sulfur… An explosion of indescribable force occurred. It seemed as if the whole island quivered to its very depths.” (Jules Verne, “The Mysterious Island”) Which substance is described in this passage? What is its formula and properties? How is it obtained?
In an article published in 1745 M.V. Lomonosov wrote: “When dissolving some base metal, especially iron, in acid spirits a combustible vapor bursts out from the mouth of the bottle, which is nothing other than phlogiston.”
About the production of which substance is M.V. Lomonosov writing? What does he call “combustible vapor”, “phlogiston”, “acid spirits”?
In one of the old manuscripts there is a description of how an Arabian alchemist, having tasted a colorless liquid obtained by heating dry wood in a retort, was instantly blinded.
What substance did the Arabian alchemist obtain? How is it produced? What are its properties?
In one of the manuscripts dated 1870 one can read: “Hydrogen chlorovich interacts with glinozemium to form glinozemium chlorovich.” At the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences the possibility was discussed of using combinations of words for naming chemical substances that would resemble Russian surnames and patronymics. For example, for water the name “hydrogen oxygenovich” was proposed. Write formulas of the substances named using this nomenclature: “Potassium chlorovich”, “Hydrogen chlorovich”, “Potassium chlorovich kisloff”, “Potassium chlorovich three-acid”, “Hydrogen serovich four-acid”
How did the names “Turnbull’s blue”, “Berlin blue”, “yellow blood salt”, “red blood salt” arise?
How are silane and selenane similar and how do they differ?

Ecology
Which element was named after the ancient Scandinavian goddess of spring and beauty?
What is the name of the stable particle that has neither mass nor charge, travels at the speed of light and penetrates through the Earth and the Sun?
Mushroom pickers found a small bog in the forest from which bubbles of some gas rose in places. The gas burst into flame from a match, and a faintly glowing flame began to wander across the bog. Which gas is this?
In which country stands an iron column about seven meters high and weighing 6.5 tons without the slightest spot of rust, although its age is almost 2800 years?
Which sulfur compounds did A.S. Pushkin mention in the 1832 poem:
“….Then I heard (oh, wonder) a foul smell,
As if a rotten egg had burst,
Or the quarantine guard smoked a brazier of sulfur.
I, holding my nose, turned my face away……”
Among the Sinai sands grows the shrub diptam, which in those places is called “Moses’s bush”. Why is it called that?
What do divers breathe?
Where do acid rains come from?
The French chemist and pharmacist Bernard Courtois had a favorite cat which, during dinner, frightened by something, jumped onto bottles containing a suspension of seaweed ash in ethanol and sulfuric acid. The bottles broke, the liquids mixed, and clouds of blue-violet vapor rose from the floor, which deposited on surrounding objects as black-violet crystals with a metallic luster and a pungent smell. Which element was discovered thanks to the cat?
Who first created and organized the production of raincoats impregnated with rubber?
What substances are called fatty acids? Give examples.
111. Chemical transformations.
A novice lab assistant had a whole series of mishaps: he put a substance into a drying oven, turned on the heat… returns, opens the oven, and finds an empty dish — the substance is gone. He decided to recrystallize a salt, began adding it to boiling water, used up all his salt supplies, but did not obtain a saturated solution. He began to cool the solution, but crystals did not precipitate. In despair he evaporated the solution to dryness and… saw an empty dish. With which substances was the lab assistant working? Determine their formulas.
Can a metal hydroxide be precipitated when an acid is added to a salt solution?
By what method is carbon dioxide removed from the air of closed spaces (submarines, spacecraft)?
Two chemical engineers were talking in the evening near an open container of hydrogen peroxide prepared for bottling and shipment to a customer. One of the engineers worked in the department producing manganese dioxide. The next day the plant laboratory checking the quality of the hydrogen peroxide found that the bottles were filled with water containing only traces of hydrogen peroxide. Explain. Where did the hydrogen peroxide go?
How can acetone be obtained from acetate?
How can aluminum be converted to aluminum hydroxide in one stage?