Talk:2373: Chemist Eggs

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Revision as of 07:43, 17 October 2020 by PaulSeed (talk | contribs) (What sulphides really smell like.)
Jump to: navigation, search


Chemists get another solid pummeling from xkcd dot com. Also, double question marks, very Ryan North. Lightcaller (talk) 00:41, 17 October 2020 (UTC)

You could disguise the smell of your rotten eggs with selenophenol and thioacetones. Nobody will complain about your mere sulphides then... (ETA: I wonder about selenoacetones?)162.158.154.167 00:53, 17 October 2020 (UTC)

Seperately, I recall the time when I was still at school and we'd made some compound that had produced the distinct smell of almonds. Mentioning this later to my father (a chemist himself) he was initially quite concerned before I clarified whatever-it-was as whatever it actually was and not an actual cyanogen compound. 141.101.107.82 01:03, 17 October 2020 (UTC)

I always heave a mental sigh when I see some bit of safety literature informing me that natural gas smells like rotten eggs. First, as Randall points out, that's not a very useful explanation for most people. Second, it isn't the natural gas (i.e. methane) that has that odour, but the thiols that are added to it as a safety feature. BunsenH (talk) 02:42, 17 October 2020 (UTC)

Pretty sure the current version explanation is wildly overthinking this - sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, and sometimes a comic about how weird it is that we reference things smelling like rotten eggs when they’re uncommon is just that. 172.69.34.28 05:17, 17 October 2020 (UTC)

Actually, sulphides (H2S in particular) smell more like farts that rotten eggs. But science teachers know that if they use the word "fart" in front of a class, there will be no more work done in that lesson, and probably none by that class.

The kids recognise the smell, of course. We used to call it "fartrogen dioxide". Paul Seed 07:43, 17 October 2020 (UTC)