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Joined: Jan 2006
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stranger
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OP
stranger
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 2 |
"Dihydrogen monoxide" is NOT the chemical name of water. It is a joke name made up by people who know a little chemistry, but not much.
I have a degee in chemistry, including graduate work and experimental research, and NO ONE in that profession EVER calls water dihydrogen monoxide. They call it "water". If it were to be named according to its constituent elements, it would be called "hydrogen oxide" - but it's not. It's referred to as "water".
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027 |
You are right to observe that NO ONE in that profession EVER calls water dihydrogen monoxide . Nevertheless, it is a formally correct chemical name for it. The history of chemical nomenclature is marked by the competition between formal names and so-called trivial names. "Water" (like Benzene) is a typical trivial name, which has not been contested so far.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819 |
That www.dhmo.org site is brilliant though.
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 1,055
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 1,055 |
> it is a formally correct chemical name for it.
That may be so and also convenient but it ain't really what it is. I mean, with all its unusual properties such hydrogen bonding, it can, for example, also be described ionically. Some other names are aqua, hydroxic acid, hydrogen hydroxide and oxane, but it remains a gas or liquid that that concepts cannot explain. :-)
Oh, and if there are any takers, I remember some kind of water-based solvent being called 'hydro' in something I once watched.
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Joined: Mar 2000
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027 |
but it remains a gas or liquid that that concepts cannot explain - With all my due respect, but it seems that you have fallen into the "essentialist trap". A name is but a code used to refer to a concept. It is not a concept by itself. If you try to chose or invent a name that "explains" a thing, you are likely to fail: mostly because the name would become half a page long, or more (in the case of water, probably a book  )
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Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154 |
After all snow is chemically water but a WHOLE different concept.
Last edited by Zed; 09/07/06 10:18 PM.
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Joined: May 2002
Posts: 1,529
veteran
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veteran
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 1,529 |
"A name is but a code used to refer to a concept. It is not a concept by itself." And a concept is only a percieved characteristic of our universe that through the very act of naming it, makes that characteristic general. But it doesn't necessarily make it real. 
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Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
Quote:
...
And a concept is only a percieved characteristic of our universe that through the very act of naming it, makes that characteristic general.
But it doesn't necessarily make it real.
aka the Sapir-Whorf-Milum hypothesis.
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819 |
Did the dihydrogen monoxide name come up in some other context than www.dhmo.org? Because this is an awfully serious debate about a name for water that's obviously part of a hoax.
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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Anna! Good to see your fonts again, m'dear. 
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