Thank You Wikipedia.

One more of life's questions answered:

Let me start by saying that I often geek out on wikipedia. I look up all kinds of stuff. Steven and I call it "Create your own adventure"...and it goes like this:

Start by finding something on the wiki homepage. Click it. Find something in that article to click...review that, find something new in that article, and so on and so on. I could go on ad nauseum about the charms of wikipedia.

Today it answered a long standing question for me:

Many many moons ago I was a freshman sitting in an upper division biology course in high school. The teacher was making a demonstration about the scientific process and how we make hypotheses and then test them. He went on (not very effectively) about how you would go about finding out what was wrong with your car if it suddenly wouldn't start. (BTW, this is a GREAT time to mention that Occam's Razzor would suggest the battery was unplugged, but I won't go into that.)

Of course, I'm an engineer at heart and I said "You take it to the mechanic!"...that was simply an unacceptable answer for him because he was a "scientist". So to further prove his point, because now he is simply arguing with me, instead of teaching a class, he takes a test tube filled with sugar and pours a clear liquid into it, then sets it over a small bunsen burner. The sugar instantly dissolves, heats, burns and leaves a black residue in the test tube smelling of carmel!

He asked what happened, and what's left? I say the sugar dissolved, heated and carmelized. This was somewhat also an unacceptable answer for him. I never knew why....because clearly that did happen....Enter the wiki for Sulfuric Acid:

Reaction with water:

Because the hydration of sulfuric acid is thermodynamically favorable, sulfuric acid is an excellent dehydrating agent. The affinity of sulfuric acid for water is sufficiently strong that it will remove hydrogen and oxygen atoms from other compounds; for example, mixing starch (C6H12O6)n and concentrated sulfuric acid will give elemental carbon and water which is absorbed by the sulfuric acid (which becomes slightly diluted): (C6H12O6)n → 6C + 6H2O. The effect of this can be seen when concentrated sulfuric acid is spilled on paper; the cellulose reacts to give a burned appearance, the carbon appears much as soot would in a fire. A more dramatic reaction occurs when sulfuric acid is added to a tablespoon of white sugar; a rigid column of black, porous carbon will quickly emerge. The carbon will smell strongly of caramel.

Apparently the answer he was looking for was "that is carbon in that there tube".