Re: Is this acceptable Chemical English?

From: Bob (bbx107_at_excite.com)
Date: 02/26/05 

Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2005 19:13:39 -0800

On 25 Feb 2005 06:59:23 -0800, farooq_w@hotmail.com wrote:

>When asked to experimental procedure in the past tense, rather odd
>constructions appear in the lab reports, because sometimes it makes an
>odd Urdu translation: eg. the instruction

For lab reports, you can set whatever standard you want, and it may
well be less than formal. Emphasize that meaning is clear. With
students who are also learning English, you can indeed teach some
English along the way, but to some extent that may distract from
teaching chem.

>
>"Weigh 0.1 g of extra pure X to the nearest 0.1 mg, transfer to a 500
>ml volumetric flask(...). Take the absorbance readings..."
>is usually transformed as
>
>"Weighed 0.1675 g X, transferred and dissolved in distilled water and
>_maked up_ the volume. Took absorbance of this solution.

Other than the incorrect irregular verb form, that is not so bad.

might suggest:

... transferred to 500 mL volumetric flask, dissolved in distilled
water and brought up to volume (or "to the mark").

>
>
>Just wanted to ask if the following recommendation is standard
>chem-English for describing solution preparation:
>
>0.1675 g of extra pure X was accurately weighed, transferred to a 500
>ml volumetric flask, it was dissolved in distilled water and diluted to
>the mark with it.
>
>Is it correct start a sentence with a number?

It certainly is common, at least informally. Sometimes it is better to
write a direct statement that says what you mean very clearly, than to
develop a circumlocution to please the grammar police.

>
>Or this one is better?
>"A 1.234 x 10 ^-2 M solution of X was prepared by weighing 0.1675 g of
>extra pure X and transferred (transferring??) it to a 500 mL volumetric
>flask, dissolved (or should it be dissolving??) in distilled water and
>diluted to the mark with it"

I think the earlier one is somewhat easier to follow. Not a big deal.

Yes, transferred should be transferring, etc. The main verb is
prepared; weighing, transferring, dissolving all go with by.

But how about... I weighed a 0.1675 g sample of ...

Direct, clear, and avoids starting with the number.

>
>Secondly, grams should be taken as a singular as a footnote in
>Pauling's General Chemistry suggests.
>
>2 grams was weighed --Correct?
>2 grams were weighed--Incorrect? Right?

You can't win that one. If you want to avoid it... A 2 gram sample...
is certainly singular. Also note that if you use g (abbreviation
rather than word), you at least hide the problem a bit.

To be a bit more serious, I think if a student asked I would suggest
"singular", as you have said. But I certainly would not worry about
it. I should also admit that I do not worry anymore about whether
people use "data" as singular (just so long as they don’t try to make
a plural from it!)

bob