A Guide to Understanding
Chemistry Papers
"It has been long known that .... "-
I have not bothered to look up the original reference
"Three samples were chosen for detailed study."-
The results of the others did not make sense and were ignored.
"Typical results are shown." -
The best results are shown.
"reversible reaction" - starting
material recovered
"The reaction proceeded vigorously and exothermically
but the final yield was small."- I couldn't
scrape it all off the ceiling.
"The compound hydrolyses readily."
- The water pump sucked back.
"The compound readily forms a nickel complex."
- My spatula dissolved in it.
"Stirred for 60 hours to rearrange."
- I went away for a binding week-end.
"A flash distillation was performed."
- The apparatus went up in flames.
"Aliquots were titrated at 30 minute intervals."
- A round trip to the local pub/snack bar/coffee shop and
back takes 25 minutes.
"invariably" - it worked twice.
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"to
some extent". - it worked once
"Despite unorthodox methods ..."
- I got the answer, out of a book
"time honoured method" - it worked
last year
"within reasonable limits of error".
- 15% either way
"This procedure was omitted due to time limitations."
- I forgot to do it.
"beyond a shadow of a doubt" -
maybe
"It is generally believed that ..."
- couple of other guys think so too
"a semi-quantitative estimate"
- a guess + a fiddle factor
"By use of a well-known conversion formula ...
" - Cooke's variable constant
"identified spectroscopically"
- the right color
"trivial objections" - unanswerable
arguments
"Ethanol residues were recovered."
- but the author hasn't yet.
"While it has not been possible to provide definite
answers to these questions ..." - the experiments
did not work
"It is clear that much additional work will
be required before a complete understanding..."
- I do not understand.
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