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107 Stories About Chemistry |
Imagine this. Hardly has hydrogen been mixed with oxygen than water vapour appears. Hardly does an iron plate has come into contact with air than it becomes coated with reddish brown rust, and a few minutes later the solid lustrous metal has turned into a loose powder, iron oxide. All the chemical reactions in the world proceed at a breath-taking speed. All molecules react with each other independent of the energy they possess. Each collision between two molecules results in their chemical union. All the metals would disappear from the face of the Earth, because they would be oxidized. Complex organic substances, including those constituting living cells would change into simple, but more stable compounds. It would be a strange world, a world without life,
a world without chemistry, a fantastic world of very stable compounds with
no inclination to enter into chemical reactions.
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