Sunday, August 16, 2009
Aku bukan karbon
yang bisa mengikat empat unsur
Aku juga bukan alkana, alkena, atau alkuna
yang bisa merangkap pasangannya
Aku hanyalah elektron
yang bebas dan terus berputar
dari pagi hingga malam
meskipun kau tak dapat melihatnya
Aku hanya butuh unsur tulus dan kasih sayang
yang bereaksi dalam gelas dan tabung jiwaku
membentuk senyawa cinta dan rindu...
Semakin lama...
Senyawa itu semakin mengendap dan mengerak di hatiku
tak bisa diurai meski dengan hirolisis
Perasaanku telah sadah olehmu
hingga tak mampu bereaksi dengan sabun manapun
Pemanasan, penukar resin, natrium karbonat
semua telah ku coba tapi tetap tak bisa
Mungkin senyawa itu berikatan tetrahedral
bukan pentahedral apalagi vanderwalls
Aku ingin engkau menjadi sebuah oksidator yang kuat
mengikis habis bilangan oksidasi dalam kesombonganmu yang dahsyat
Andaikan kamu bisa melihat lebih dalam sebuah siklus katalitik yang terjadi dalam hati
Maka kau akan mengerti bahwa energi untuk menguraikan dinginnya hatimu sangatlah tinggi
Biar katalis dari logam transisi sekuat apapun yang coba ku pakai
kau tetap tak terurai...
(from many sources)
Labels: extraordinary poem
Wrath!
Equilibrium, the finale of reactions
Dynamic
Ever bouncing the reaction continues
But quantities stay the same
Like two great beasts locking horns
Neither refusing to give way, preferring death to dishonor
Reversibility
Not unlike a fall windbreaker
Double sided, indestructible
Reactions work both ways
Products to reactants
And reactants to products
Ever battling with the merciless bond formations and fragmentations
Who will win this war of wills?
Constant
The Keq, immortal
Products over reactants
Pure solids and water,
Like Green party candidates
Forgotten, not considered
Q, the reaction quotient
Instantaneous
When less than Keq, products formed
When equal, equilibrium is reached
When greater, reactants formed
Ever adjusting toward equilibrium
Much like the clownfish changes sex
To produce an equilibrium between males and females
Le Châtelier
A Frenchman with a love of chemistry
His principle, the law of his land
When a change is imposed
On a system at equilibrium
The system will react in a direction
Reducing the amount of change
Just as a swing, pushed in one direction
Will swing back in the opposite direction
Concentration
The big “M” stands for moles/liter
The answer to the age old question, “How much stuff?”
Adding more reactants drives equilibrium toward products
Adding products has the opposite effect
Water, from quiet sunny stream
To babbling brook
To raging river
All has a concentration of 56 moles/liter
Temperature
Bane of man’s existence
From frozen mountain snows
To burning desert sands
One is never comfortable
It alone has the power to affect Keq
It alone has the splendor
Adding heat will drive endothermic reactions toward the products
While exothermic reactions will be driven toward the reactants
Equilibrium
Quietly controlling
Calming disruption
Governing our lives
(by Jeff Atkinson, Joe Donley and Eric Frey)
Labels: extraordinary poem



