Hoppy Hollydogs!

I hope you have a very Happy Christmas – or as they say in Wales, Nadolig Llawen.

I will publish an article or two each day and they will always have a few questions at the end. The idea is that you can answer those questions using the comments section. They are always fairly simple questions although you may need to open a new tab and do a little research sometimes. Don’t just copy and paste answers in from the Internet. Use your own words. I am unlikely to ask any questions that require answers that use words you have never used before!

Here is a video of a man cleaning his chimney with a petrol-powered leaf blower. I don’t know what the chap filming is saying but I hope it is not anything too fruity.

This is wrong on a number of levels, the least of which is the risk of his falling off the roof. It does not strike me as the environmentally friendly way to clean his chimney. It’s an important job if you don’t want your chimney to catch fire but blowing all that soot into the atmosphere is pretty inconsiderate.

Questions…

1. Of which chemical element does most of that soot consist?
2. What two elements are found in a hydrocarbon?
3. What two compounds form when a hydrocarbon combusts completely in air?
4. One possible product of incomplete combustion is soot. What poisonous gas can also be produced when a hydrocarbon burns incompletely?