Fact or Fiction: False statements about the bodies and substances around us

A light hammer blow will turn one large diamond into many small ones. However, it is not always necessary to resort to the help of tools: small diamonds set in rings or earrings can be destroyed by an accidental impact on furniture, walls, or door jambs.

Diamond and brilliant are different names for the same stone. “Diamond” is the name of the mineral, and “brilliant” is a jewelry term denoting one of the types of gemstone cuts.

Soil and bodies of water contain large amounts of industrial waste. Therefore, water vapor forming clouds can contain acids, alkalis, and other water-soluble compounds.

Read more about rainwater in our article ☛

Even at ordinary room temperatures, the most common window glass remains a liquid, although a very viscous one. It continues to flow, but at a speed barely discernible by the most sensitive instruments.

Today, four states of matter can be named, which theoretically any substances can take: gas, liquid, solid, and plasma.

In fact, there are four such metals: the well-known mercury, and the less known gallium, cesium, and francium.

In reality, osmium and iridium are the densest, and therefore the heaviest metals on Earth.

In outer space, there are objects with densities hundreds, thousands, and millions of times greater, such as the matter of white dwarfs (dying stars whose sizes are close to the size of the Earth).

It all depends on the external pressure or the pressure inside the vessel. For example, in the mountains, it is impossible to boil water without special means, while in the boilers of thermal power plants, water does not boil even at +300 °C.

There are plastics that are comparable in properties to metals. For example, fluoroplastics, among which Teflon can be noted, have the highest strength and retain their properties at temperatures from –70 to +350 °C.

Read about the amazing properties of Teflon and its applications in our article ☛

The actual result will be the opposite. Surely each of us has observed how two pieces of smooth glass stacked together literally stick to each other. This effect is directly related to polishing: when the glass is very smooth and has no microscopic irregularities, the force of attraction between the atoms or molecules of the two contacting surfaces begins to act.

Raindrops are shaped like small spheres or spheres with a flattened base. During the fall, the drop is as if in zero gravity, and in the absence of gravity, all liquids take their natural shape — a sphere.

This property is used in the production of hunting lead shot. At the very top of a tall tower (up to 45 meters or more) there is a special “colander” with holes of a certain diameter. Molten lead is poured into this “colander”, which, passing through the holes, falls to the bottom of the tower. During the fall, the metal takes on a spherical shape and solidifies. The pellets fall into a tank of water that cushions the impact.

Almost all the elements of the periodic table have been found in sea water. In addition to 27.2 grams of sodium chloride, known as ordinary table salt, one liter of sea water contains 3.8 grams of magnesium chloride, 1.7 grams of magnesium sulfate, 1.3 grams of potassium sulfate, about 1 gram of calcium sulfate, and more.

100% pure alcohol exists, and it is actively used in the chemical industry, as additives to automotive and rocket fuels, in perfumery, and other industries. However, it is not used in alcoholic beverages.

Polishing the mirror surface makes sense only up to a certain point when the micro-irregularities become smaller than the wavelength.

For light, it does not matter whether it falls on an ideally smooth surface completely devoid of micro-irregularities or one with micro-roughnesses — in both cases, reflection will occur the same way.