The
God who is Le ChâtelierThe
God who is Le ChâtelierThere is one single chemist who has shaped my life, and many of my friends, without whom, my A at A-Level would have been impossible. In giving thanks to him, I have dedicated a page to him and his primary follower... Richard Currington.
French chemist who suggested the use of a Thermocouple to measure high temperatures and invented the optical Pyrometer . In 1888, he stated the rule known as a Le Châtelier's Principle , which states that when a system is disturbed from equilibrium , it will re-establish equilibrium in such a way as to minimize the original change. He also translated Gibbs's works into French.
Information shamelessly stolen from...
Eric's Treasure Troves of Science, 1996-7 Eric
W. Weisstein
Which is a GREAT place, and everyone should
go there!
(b. Oct. 8, 1850, Paris, France--d. Sept. 17, 1936, Miribel-les-chelles), French chemist who is best known for the principle of Le Châtelier, which makes it possible to predict the effect a change of conditions (temperature, pressure, and concentration of reaction components) will have on a chemical reaction. This principle proved invaluable in the chemical industry for developing the most efficient chemical processes.
Copyright (c) 1997 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. All Rights Reserved
But that isn't all. For not only was Le Châtelier a great scientist, but also a supreme God worshipped by many chemistry students. The Chief High Priest of Le Châtelierism is a Richard Currington...
Richard Currington may appear to be a humble Chemistry teacher, but in fact, hiding behind that calm exterior is a religious fanatic who, being the Chief High Priest of Le Châtelierism maintains a high respect for him. He cannot, as the religion dictates, go an hour without saying the man's name and using it to explain some every day event. The constant use of this logic means that RC is not only the greatest Chemistry teacher that ever taught at A-Level at Methwold High School, (stiff competition from Mrs Berry, Ms Crawford and Mr Stead) but is also the person to ask for an explanation to anything. In a recent lecture, Le Châtelier and Religion, he proved that God's existence would force an equilibrium in such a way that Iron(III) ions would go red when added to a phenol group, and as this is obviously not true he disproved God's existence. Another lecture, along similar lines proved that money does in fact grow on trees, that black was white and life does not actually exist. A genius if ever there was one.
A short while ago I received this from a former student of RC, Matthew Morgan. I reprint it here for the world to see the man's importance!
Heard of the Dead Sea scrolls? Well, a new piece has been found in them, previously passed over, the book of "Currington". I shall give you a small sample.
1:1 |
In the beginning there was Currington.And the Currington was with Chemistry, and the Currington WAS Chemistry... |
3:13 |
And Currington leadeth his 5 disciples onto the mountaintop and he began to spake, saying"Blessed are those who love Chemistry for they shall get A's.Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after good results, for they shall see the face of Le Chatalier.Blessed are those who can answer my quick-fire questions, for they shall be called the 'Sons of Currington' " |
3:14 |
And then Matthew (the disciple whom Currington despiseth) asked unto him, "Surely master, thou art not all powerful, can you not make plain to us the secret of chemistry?" |
3:15 |
And Currington replieth "There is not a drop of Silver Nitrate that falleth to the bottom of your chloride solution that I do not knoweth of" |
3:16 |
And the Matthew could spake no more for he was foolish. |
3:17 |
And then Currington inquireth of one of the disciples (Shaun Hartley by name), and sayeth, "Surely, I see your evil deeds, your wanton and cruel acts, they have not escaped my notice, but mock me not, or THOU SHALT INSCRIBE IT!" |
3:18 |
And the five drew back for that had not seen their master in such a passion. |
3:19 |
And Currington sayeth to them of little faith, "Surely as the Diphenyltetracarbizide is red and the Copper (II) is Blue, surely will I make the come to after-school classes to partake in my wisdom.Fear not, O Diana, for I am with thee..." |
A wise man, RC was often a great speaker...
"And now, for some light refreshment, a change
of subject. Chemistry is too easy, and I propose a radical
altering of chemical thinking... I propose a new WAY. The only
way to train potential chemists to work in the hardest, most
demanding areas of the world, is to teach them in The
hardest, most demanding method possible, in the classroom which few leave
un-indoctrinated to the laws of chemistry... THE WAY OF CURRINGTON."
--
Extract from a speech once read by Richard Currington
"...and this,
this is a project one of the "pupils" at my old
school did. You could say this is an example of how
NOT to do it. Checking the purity of aspirin? I told
him he's the purity of aspirin. All he did was work
for two months on a puny project, staying behind every night
after school for at least two weeks. He handed in about
100 pages of neatly typed text and diagrams - but he
forgot one vital thing - he did not mention Le Châtelier
or Le Châtelier's Principle. Now, YOU will not make the same
mistakes WILL you class? I expect at least 130 pages, with
many references to Le Châtelier being made. I want you to
all memorize Vogels and then quote from it at numerous places...
thank you carry on please..."
-- Richard Currington addressing his
year 8 class at his new school
"The world in all
its splendor mean nothing without a firm grasp of the chemical
principles behind it"
-- Richard Currington
"Matthew, you're joking when you
say that you haven't done my homework right? RIGHT???"
-- Richard
Currington, The Dark Lord of Chemistry
"Lone pair-lone pair repulsion is
greater than bond pair-lone pair repulsion is greater than bond pair-bond
pair repulsion"
-- Richard Currington
"You don't know what van der
waals forces are, next you'll be saying you don't know who
Le Châtelier is. Oh dear"
-- Richard Currington, first lesson
"So,
right you spent two weeks revising chemistry 24 hours a day,
without breaks, and you've done all the papers, and I've been
teaching you for the last six months, and you mean to
tell me you don't know what colour Fe3+ is!"
-- Richard
Currington, getting exasperated
His greatness led to poetry as well as chemical genius...
T'was the night before Chemistry, when all through the room
not a test-tube was stirring, not even a boom
and Vogels was placed by the class-desks with care
in hopes that St Currington soon would be there.
The students were nestled all snug in their seats
while visions of lone-pairs danced in their heads
And Shaun in his jumper, and I in my short
had just settled our brains for a long lesson taught
When out of the lab there arose such a clatter
I sprang from my seat to see what was the matter
Away to the window I flew like a gas
tore open the shutter, and threw up the glass
The sun on the breast of the new-sowen grass
gave the lustre of midday to objects we pass
when, what to my wondering eyes should it look,
but a fast-moving man and eight large new books
and a small, stout, young teacher, so clever and quick
I knew in a moment it must be St. Rick
More rapid than eagles, his questions they came
and he whistled and shouted and called them by name:
'Now Matthew! Now Simon
Now John Stead and David
On Rodney On Jean H
On Diane and Juli
To the top of the board!
To the top of the class! Now work away!
Work away! Work away all!'
As quick-fires that before the exam'nation fly
when they meet with an obstacle, just ask them why
so up to the black-board the students they flew
with the brain full of words, Le Chatelier too
And then in a twinkling, I heard on the clam
the drawing and writing of each diagram
As I drew in my head and was squirming around
to the front here St Currington came with a bound
He was dressed all in white, from his head to his foot
and his clothes were all tarnished with 'cator and chalk
A bundle of books he had flung on his back
and he looked like a chemist just giving us flack
His eyes--how they twinkled! His glasses, how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a berry
His droll little mouth was drawn up in a sneer
and the look on his face caused us some fear
The form of a 'tube he held tight in his hands
and the smoke it encircled his head like a cloud
He had a broad face and a round little belly
that shook when he laughed like a bowl full of jelly
He was chubby and stout, a right clever old clerk
and he frowned when he saw us, in spite of our work
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head
soon let me know I had something to dread
He spoke many words, and went straight to his work
and filled all the textbooks, then turned with a jerk
and laying a finger aside of his nose
then giving a nod, to the board Matthew rose
He sprang to his seat, to his class gave a whistle
And away Matthew flew, his answer like gristle
And I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of Methwold,
'Happy Chemistry to all, and to all a good 'xam!!'
A work by Simon Smith
A principle due to Le Châtelier which states that when a system is disturbed from equilibrium, it will re-establish equilibrium in such a way as to minimize the original change.
Function by Temperature dependent variations in the induced voltage.
American physicist who formulated a concept of thermodynamic equilibrium of a system in terms of Energy and Entropy. His work, however, was published in a relatively obscure journal. Gibbs' contributions were therefore unknown among prominent European chemists until they were translated into German by Ostwald in 1892 and into French by Le Châtelier in 1899. Gibbs reviewed the relationship between the laws of Thermodynamics and statistical theory of molecular motions in Elementary Principles in Statistical Mechanics (1902). He also did extensive work on chemical equilibrium, and equilibria between phases. The overshooting of the original function by partial sums of Fourier Series at points of discontinuity is known as the Gibbs Phenomenon.
Information shamelessly stolen from...
Eric's Treasure Troves of Science, 1996-7 Eric W. Weisstein
a condition in the course of a reversible chemical reaction in which no net change in the amounts of reactants and products occurs. A reversible chemical reaction is one in which the products, as soon as they are formed, react to produce the original reactants. At equilibrium, the two opposing reactions go on at equal rates, or velocities, hence there is no net change in the amounts of substances involved. At this point the reaction may be considered to be completed; i.e., for some specified reaction condition, the maximum conversion of reactants to products has been attained.
Copyright (c) 1997 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Page last updated on 12th November 1998
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