Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2021 October 10

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October 10

What can I add to vinegar to make a paste out it?

I use vinegar to clean off some micro-mushrooms / micro-molds.

Often the vinegar drips out due to it's "watery" behavior, so what could I add to the vinegar to make a paste out of it (which won't destroy the acetic acid molecules)?

Thanks, 182.232.194.219 (talk) 04:18, 10 October 2021 (UTC)

Borax. 2603:6081:1C00:1187:69EB:2C62:8BCD:CD69 (talk) 04:35, 10 October 2021 (UTC)

What is the vinegar dripping out of? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 05:02, 10 October 2021 (UTC)

Generally anything, you know how it is with water / any liquid that behaves like water, it just won't stay in the same place easily.

Drips of the liquid will go anywhere that gravity pulls them to easily, that's why I seek something to add to the vinegar to make it a paste. 2001:44C8:455B:F3E5:4B18:97C1:E617:DD3C (talk) 05:31, 10 October 2021 (UTC)

Try any of these thickening agents. Abductive (reasoning) 09:45, 10 October 2021 (UTC)

Corn starch is cheap and readily available and can form thick pastes. Mike Turnbull (talk) 12:54, 10 October 2021 (UTC)

are you doing this is in a vivarium / terrarium / paludarium, or in some chemical / technological setup? In order to give a meaningful advice, we need to know more about the system that you intend to use this in. Dr Dima (talk) 02:41, 11 October 2021 (UTC)

I do it in a bowl in my kitchen. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 182.232.53.152 (talk) 14:57, 11 October 2021 (UTC)

For kitchen uses, you can mix vinegar and cream of tartar to make a cleaning paste. Works well, and washes off with water. Dr Dima (talk) 20:58, 13 October 2021 (UTC)

Hello User:Michael D. Turnbull ; starches are often hard to dissolve in warm water (and also warm vinegar? For example, I tried tapioca starch and it was quite "repetitive" to dissolve in warm vinegar); I can put the vinegar in the fridge a bit but I am also afraid to have "residues" of starch so I need something that will have it dissolve easily and stay dissolved as any commercial cream; please share an idea about how to do it. 49.230.20.227 (talk) 05:34, 16 October 2021 (UTC)

It sounds as though the cream of tartar suggestion might be best for you. Once the mushrooms have been cleaned with the paste, excess should wash off easily in warm water. Assuming you plan to cook with the mushrooms. a small excess of cream of tartar or or corn starch won't do any harm. Mike Turnbull (talk) 11:50, 16 October 2021 (UTC)

Is it possible to see valence band under microscope when reverse bias done?

Is it possible to see valence band under super microscope when reverse bias done? Rizosome (talk) 10:27, 10 October 2021 (UTC)

A valence band is not a material object. It is not something you can put under a microscope.  --Lambiam 21:06, 10 October 2021 (UTC)

In addition, atoms are too small to be "seen" under a "microscope", if any of those two terms is defined to mean visible light is used. See Diffraction-limited_system#The_Abbe_diffraction_limit_for_a_microscope. Tigraan^{Click here for my talk page ("private" contact)} 08:19, 11 October 2021 (UTC)

Valence bands are a scientific model built on the orbital diagram model of individual atoms or small molecules; when applied to the principle of metallic bonding (i.e. the sea of electrons model). As noted, it is not a physical thing, but a human-created model designed to help people conceptualize and understand the behavior of electrons in metals. --Jayron32 12:31, 13 October 2021 (UTC)

Not only in metals - as concepts the valence and conduction bands are frequently used to describe the behaviour of semiconductors, and both do exist in insulators - albeit with the conduction band empty under normal conditions.--Phil Holmes (talk) 14:00, 13 October 2021 (UTC)