[alt-photo] Re: Stoichiometry for the nonscientist

[Katharine Thayer]

Alberto, I don't understand what you're on about here?

I was responding to David's bewilderment over an explanation he found  
on the internet about molarity, which he didn't understand and which  
I said was basically unreadable to the layperson, and which I have in  
fact since traced to Wikipedia, as I suspected.  I wasn't suggesting  
that the idea of molarity was suspect because it was found on  
Wikipedia, for heavens' sake,  I was simply saying that Wikipedia's  
explanations of things aren't always comprehensible or useful, and  
its explanation of molarity was neither, in my opinion.

Stoichiometry is a very old idea in chemistry; I have known that for  
at least 40 years, and I don't see that anything I've said here could  
reasonably be interpreted otherwise.   For the last time, no, I do  
not think that stoichiometry refers only to photography, or that it  
dates only to photography's use of it, nor do I think that the idea  
originated with Wikipedia.  All I did was try to explain the concept  
in a way that people without a science background would find it  
easier to grasp.  Someone wrote to me offlist after your first post  
about this, "I swear that if you said it was raining outside where  
you live, someone would jump in with a followup post somehow  
correcting you."   I suppose that's par for the list, but  since   
I've already told you that you're mistaken about this,  there's no  
reason to keep repeating the misperception.


On Jul 30, 2010, at 2:42 PM, Alberto Novo wrote:

>> Huh?  I'm quite sure I didn't say that stoichiometry refers only   
>> to  chemical reactions in photography, or that it's only found in   
>> Wikipedia;
>>
>
> But you began your reply with
>
>> I'd guess that came from Wikipedia. (You can see I don't have a  
>> lot of respect for the "encyclopedia anyone can edit." )"
>>
>
> My remark about photography was meaning, referring to the last  
> debate, that they were notions in use many years before  
> photography, and that their application is much older than one  
> could think.
> Alberto
> www.grupponamias.com
> www.alternativephotography.com/articles/art102.html
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