Week 9 Assignments - A Question of Balance

Semiconductor of the Week:

Germanium, chemical symbol Ge, atomic weight 32 - primarily used in the semiconductor industry. As of 2007, worldwide applications include use in transistors, fiber-optic systems (35%), and infrared optics (30%).

Germanium is relatively abundant in the Earth's crust, mined primarily from spalerite (mineral composed chiefly of zinc sulfide), but is an end product of silver, lead, and copper ore processes. It is silver-white in appearance, brittle, and semi-metallic. In 1886 Clemens Winkler verified its existence in the periodic table (hypothesized by Mendeleev two decades earlier) and he named the element after his home country of Germany.

Per Wikipedia and of historical note, "The first metallic material becoming a semiconductor in the presence of an extremely strong electromagnetic field was an alloy of germanium with uranium and rhodium" - ca. 2005.

Some compounds of germanium can irritate the eyes, skin, lungs, and throat; due to its proven activity against certain bacteria, germanium is being studied for use in chemotherapy.

"Welcome to Chembalancer":

I was able to get all of the equations except the last one....it looked balanced to me, but there was obviously something catastrophic that would have happened if I had actually made that compound, 'cause the computer told me I was wrong...

I liked the game, it gave me some practice in the whole balancing concept and it was fun - I had trouble with one of the other combinations, I didn't have it reduced to the lowest number, and it was like a puzzle to figure it out, which I eventually was able to do.

General Chemistry:Balancing Equations:Tutorial -

I didn't really like this site as much as the other one. I guess it is a good site for someone still getting the grasp of the idea of balancing the equation - it is very thorough and goes through the whole process step by step which is useful; I just feel pretty comfortable with the whole thing and so it seemed a little slow and drawn out, compared to the other site. Both, however, are really helpful overall and good resources for an interactive learning experience.