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Most viral Chemistry questions on Quora

Ranked by real engagement we track — views, upvotes, comments and shares per question. Updated continuously.

840Questions tracked

21MTotal views

194.4KTotal upvotes

2.8MVirality score

1 What if I drop Francium into the ocean?

🔥 131.5K 👁 1.2M ⬆ 3.1K 💬 166 🔄 22 · Anonymous on Quora

2 I got 9999988876 in my GCSEs. Should I apply for Oxford chemistry degree?

I'd be the last one to dissuade anyone from a subject they love, but I would certainly recommend you think carefully before choosing that route. Chemistry is…

🔥 113.2K 👁 1.1M ⬆ 783 💬 80 🔄 3 · Anonymous on Quora

3 If an atom is 99.9999% empty space, then why is most matter opaque? Why doesn't light go straight through the empty space?

This chain link fence:is mostly empty space. So why can’t this basketballgo right through it? Because the size of the basketball is too large in comparison w…

🔥 104.9K 👁 768K ⬆ 8.6K 💬 118 🔄 43 · Anonymous on Quora

4 What is the strongest acid ever?

I believe that in 2005 a chemist from New Zealand invented a boron-based acid called Carborane, with a pH of -18. To put it in perspective, the water has pH…

🔥 100.7K 👁 848.8K ⬆ 4.2K 💬 215 🔄 42 · Anonymous on Quora

5 If there are three states (solid, liquid, and gas), then what's the state of fire?

There aren’t three states of matter. That’s a simplification taught to very young children in grade school because the reality is way more complicated. There…

🔥 99.2K 👁 614.6K ⬆ 12.1K 💬 0 🔄 50 · Anonymous on Quora

6 Why do 8 electrons form a stable shell? Why not 7, 6, 4, or even 2?

It’s an effect of rotational symmetry. Because electrons have spin, that number eight you should really think of as 4 pairs. Which you should think of as 1 p…

🔥 97.8K 👁 828.2K ⬆ 4.1K 💬 122 🔄 58 · Anonymous on Quora

7 The chemistry between what 2 actors was off the charts?

Ann-Margret was 22 and Elvis 28 when they filmed “Viva Las Vegas in 1963. A-M was the most memorable of Elvis’s leading ladies during his Hollywood career. T…

🔥 92.3K 👁 827.9K ⬆ 2.5K 💬 141 🔄 22 · Anonymous on Quora

8 Which acid can successfully dissolve meat and bones?

It is a lie told by Hollywood. Some people think Hydrofluoric acid is the king because of Breaking bad. Jesse dumps a body in a bathtub, the floor dissolves.…

🔥 85.1K 👁 675.5K ⬆ 4.6K 💬 316 🔄 23 · Anonymous on Quora

9 If someone dropped a greasy wrench into a 10,000-gallon tank filled with 90% hydrogen peroxide, what would happen?

I work in peroxides. 90% hydrogen peroxide is extremely serious stuff. The good news is that in the first second or less your wrench would be entirely steril…

🔥 64.5K 👁 482.5K ⬆ 5.2K 💬 0 🔄 30 · Anonymous on Quora

10 I want to score 180 in NEET chemistry. How can I prepare for it?

I scored 180/180 in chemistry in NEET 2021, so I think I am eligible to answer this question. First of all NCERT should be your primary source of studying. R…

🔥 54.9K 👁 451.9K ⬆ 2.9K 💬 49 🔄 21 · Anonymous on Quora

11 What is the weirdest element of the periodic table?

I was originally going to go with Carbon, however, seeing the plethora of answers featuring the versatile element which needs a whole branch of Chemistry to…

🔥 53.3K 👁 304K ⬆ 6.3K 💬 140 🔄 102 · Anonymous on Quora

12 What is the most dense substance that can be safely handled without special precautions (i.e., this eliminates things like lead or mercury)?

“What is the most dense substance that can be safely handled without special precautions (i.e., this eliminates things like lead or mercury)?” The densest kn…

🔥 46.9K 👁 394.8K ⬆ 2.5K 💬 4 🔄 1 · Anonymous on Quora

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13 What happens if we were to throw a five-pound lump of pure phosphorus off a pier into the sea?

14 What are the white stuff in the ice?

15 Which acid is the most acidic by nature?

16 What do chemical engineers know that others don't?

17 What is Dimethylmercury?

18 How dangerous is hydrofluoric acid?

19 What's the most dangerous chemical reaction ever carried out by accident?

20 Did CERN create gold from lead?

21 What is the most precious element on earth right now? Why does it cost more than gold per gram/ounce?

22 At Oxford, why is the acceptance rate so high for reading chemistry (~30%) when compared to other courses offered (~9-15%)?

23 What does uranium taste like?

24 What makes the number 1/137 so special in the universe, and how would things change if the fine-structure constant were different?

25 Why doesn't pure graphite burn but coal does?

26 Is fizzy water that has the same volume as normal water lighter?

27 Does gasoline go bad/rot or become unusable in any way given enough time? What happens with it exactly, and how long does that take?

28 If you blow up a balloon using your breath, over time, will the air inside change, or will it always be that person’s breath?

29 Why does cyanide taste and smell like deliciously warm almonds if it's so bad for us? Shouldn't evolution have taken care of this for us?

30 How does cyanide potassium work?

31 How should I prepare organic chemistry for NEET?

32 What makes chlorine trifluoride so dangerous?

33 What chemical do scientists fear the most?

34 Which family of elements on the periodic table do you think you will not find in any compounds? Why?

35 Why can't we just take mercury, which is element 80, and knock off one proton to make gold (#79)?

36 What is the chemistry of slow cooking?

37 Can we eat anything on the periodic table?

38 Why don't "iron fish", used to release iron in foods, rust?

39 What if 1 kilotonne of sodium metal was dropped in the ocean?

40 Coca-Cola has a secret recipe for their drink. How is it with all the technology available a scientist can't take a can of Coke, separate out the individual ingredients and amount of each, and then recreate the drink?

41 What is the proper way to dispose sulfuric acid?

42 Derived from the poisonous gas fluorine, why is fluoride used in toothpaste?

43 Is there anything between the nuclei and electrons of an atom, as they have 99.9999% free space, or are they totally empty?

44 What things don't mix well together?

45 If jet fuel can melt steel, why does it not melt the jet engine during flights?

46 If helium is lighter than air, then why can't the wheels of automobiles be filled with fixed amount of helium?

47 What color is the mercury in a mercury thermometer?

48 Why are air, water, and glass transparent, when practically no other materials are?

49 What pressure would acetylene need to get to, in an otherwise empty tank, before it exploded? Why does it explode without the porous material and acetone? There's no O2 inside, right? What exactly touches it off?

50 Did you study NCERT Chemistry the same way you studied NCERT Biology?

51 Why isn’t the transmutation of elements into gold possible?

52 How do you extract pure aluminum from aluminum sulfate?

53 Can mercury (Hg) in liquid form conduct current? If so, how well?

54 Is it possible to make hydrofluoric acid at home?

55 What is the melting point of fool’s gold?

56 Why was platinum not considered a precious metal until relatively recently, as compared to silver and gold? Does it have anything to do with platinum's not being a Group 11 element?

57 Can we drink liquid nitrogen?

58 Why does paper burn faster than wood, yet leave behind more ash than wood when burnt at similar temperatures?

59 What would happen if you boil vegetable oil then add ice to it?

60 Which is scarier, hydofluoric acid or piranha solution?

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