At the moment I'm supposed to be making a model of a sodium atom for a Chem project. As an instinctively creative person, I cringe at the thought of reverting to Styrofoam balls, so I decided to sew mine.
So I went and found the sewing box, and all the needles I could find therein were teeny with, the exception of a four-inch rusty behemoth that appeared to belong not in the sewing box but in the Spanish Inquisition Artifacts Box. I went for the big one because I thought that it would probably be harder to lose (and easier to thread). I threaded the needle and then went to go find some fabric.
I presume I was thinking something like this: Electrons are small, so I guess I'll make them, uh, some yarn pom-poms... and then I can attach them to strings of different lengths to represent different electron levels... and then I'll sew the protons and neutrons as plushy spheres. How many balls do I need total, then? Maybe like five?
Twenty-two.
In my defense, I really prefer molecular biology to chemistry, and I'm not one of those people who can just tell you molybdenum's atomic number without looking. That said, I probably should have been able to figure out that sodium had more than two protons. So now I'm trying to figure out a way to sew a sphere that will require the least total seam length. (It seems like all online sewing patterns were based on the Goode projection.)
Like, sew two circles together and stuff until it is a sphere. Or is that too simple????
ReplyDeleteThanks! sewing was taking too long and we ran out of stuffing, so, sadly, I had to revert to dollar-store Christmas balls. It's a very shiny atom.
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