The girls recently made slime. They are working on the lab reports and I want them to use the chemical compound names and be able to explain them. For borox the chemical is Na2B4O710H2O 2 parts(atoms)sodium 4 parts boron 7 parts oxygen H2O we know is water But what is the 10 before the water represent. This one is out of my field. Thanks for any help.
i "think" it is O710 not just ten. It has been a long time since i took chemisty though so I could be wrong.
borax Here is the formula from the Wikipedia encyclopedia website Borax is generally described as Na2B4O7ยท10H2O NA 2 parts sodium B 4 parts boron O 7 parts oxygen 10 ? H 2 parts hydrogen O oxygen
OK, I asked an expert!!! My DH's friend called to talk with Carl. Carl wasn't there, but this friend's wife is a chemistry instuctor, and I asked her. She says that this is a type of crystal. Differnt crystals need different amounts of water. This type of crystal needs ten water molecules. That's what the 10 means (which is sort of what we thought!). If there isn't 10 molecules of water, you won't have the crystal.
Thanks. This is what I was understanding but wanted to know for sure that I was right BEFORE I explained this to the girls.
It means that this is a hydrate, which is a solid compound or complex that has water molecules incorporated into its structure. They are not chemically attached/bonded, just associated with the other molecule in this case at a ratio of 10 per molecule. Hydrate is the operational word here, googling it or looking it up in the index of a chemistry book will take you where you need to go.
