Lithium is "created"?

Thread Starter

MrSalts

Joined Apr 2, 2020
2,767
I read a "technical" article about alternatives to lithium batteries. The article contained the phrase...
Lithium, which is found in most batteries in some form, is broken down from hard rock and brine deposits and can be created by mixing a few chemicals and minerals.

The only focus of the article was, I guess, CREATING lithium is more difficult than another element. No word about recharging efficiency (over voltage), energy density, number of recharge cycles, - it was just "content" hoping to feed an SEO algorithm. The article contained no useful information - the "author" only recompiled a hand-waving press release and added phrasing that suggests alchemy is real.

How can we improve the quality of our middle-school science courses? I'd be willing to pay more taxes so people that passed real science courses can be offered a competitive salary.
 

Papabravo

Joined Feb 24, 2006
21,159
There is a great deal of difference between 'Alchemy', which to be fair was never really a science, and materials extraction which is based on science and chemistry. I'm not familiar with the term "SEO algorithm". That definition might help me understand what you are talking about. Just to be clear the Lithium is not created it is extracted from a combination of Lithium and other things.

I do not doubt for one minute that extraction of pure materials from raw ore is a difficult process involving multiple steps an numerous hazardous substances. So is semiconductor production - while we are at it. What is your point exactly?
 

wayneh

Joined Sep 9, 2010
17,496
How can we improve the quality of our middle-school science courses? I'd be willing to pay more taxes so people that passed real science courses can be offered a competitive salary.
That's the opposite of what's needed.

The best method ever devised to ensure continuing improvement of ...anything... is the relentless pressure of competition. The freedom of individuals to make choices in their own best interests, repeated over and over, imposes an evolutionary pressure on suppliers. This is the process that nature itself uses, the method preferred by God if you're so inclined.

It is pure shameful hubris to imagine that some centrally controlled system devised by mere mortals, bureaucrats no less, can do better. Support school choice at every opportunity. One day we'll look back and shake our heads in disbelief that we sent our children to public-run asylums.
 

rsjsouza

Joined Apr 21, 2014
383
I don't see any phrase that implies Alchemy in that article - but still pretty useless.
Well, for a middle school level this fits the bill as well. Your original post mentioned the article was too generic and was written in a puerile way, but this one is certainly not. Sure, it has no stoichiometric balanced equations, but the general idea is there. Your requirements seem much more suitable for a battery manufacturer paper - not really something that I suspect will be available in the wild. At any rate, the first hit on a suitable search yields something like:

https://cdn.intechopen.com/pdfs/353...ysis_of_a_li_ion_battery_cathode_material.pdf
 

Thread Starter

MrSalts

Joined Apr 2, 2020
2,767
There is a great deal of difference between 'Alchemy', which to be fair was never really a science, and materials extraction which is based on science and chemistry.
Thanks captain, looks like you understood the pain I felt reading the STUPID article.

@rsjsouza , I wasn't searching for an article on lithium, I was just reading new content on what I thought was a science-engineering oriented website. Discovering the level of ignorance on the site was a bit stunning.
 

Thread Starter

MrSalts

Joined Apr 2, 2020
2,767
Not what I was expecting, now I'm really confused about the connection between 'Alchemy' and anything else. I think I'm going to let this one go.
Apparently, websites pay authors to write "fresh" content to keep homepages active and the daily (hourly) changes are monitored by web crawlers from Google, Bing and others - the more new content, the more likely the website will be near he top of the list. Google doesn't check for accuracy, just lookin for activity and updates. At least that is the current rumor of the SEO algorithms. They change often but, new content has proven to drive traffic and higher positions on search results. Accuracy is over-rated today. So hire a guy that got an "F" in middle school science because he charges less per word than more informed authors.
 
Last edited:

Papabravo

Joined Feb 24, 2006
21,159
Apparently, websites pay authors to write "fresh" content to keep homepages active and the daily (hourly) changes are monitored by web crawlers from Google, Bing and others - the more new content, the more likely the website will be near he top of the list. Google doesn't check for accuracy, just lookin for activity and updates. At least that is the current rumor of the SEO algorithms. They change often but, new content has proven to drive traffic and higher positions on search results. Accuracy is over-rated today. So higher a guy that got an "F" in middle school science because he charges less per word than more informed authors.
With that explanation I now understand your original post. Thank you for that.
 

wayneh

Joined Sep 9, 2010
17,496
Lithium, which is found in most batteries in some form, is broken down from hard rock and brine deposits and can be created by mixing a few chemicals and minerals.
The main problem with that sentence is the choice of the word "created" when referring to an element. Extracting, concentrating and purifying an element from nature is not exactly an act of creation, since the element was clearly there to begin with. But on the other hand the lithium found in nature is all reacted and in compounds with other elements. If you run a chemical process that produces metallic lithium from these salts and minerals, are you creating the lithium metal? I think you arguably are. It's a little sloppy and not precise language but the intent comes through.

You can find a lot worse!
 

Thread Starter

MrSalts

Joined Apr 2, 2020
2,767
If you run a chemical process that produces metallic lithium from these salts and minerals, are you creating the lithium metal? I think you arguably are.
One could argue such use of the word "create" is ok in your context but no such chemical reduction process of lithium salts to lithium metal exists ("...by mixing a few chemicals and minerals") to "create" lithium.

Ignorance trying to justify a compete stranger's ignorance is comical and weird.
 

wayneh

Joined Sep 9, 2010
17,496
One could argue such use of the word "create" is ok in your context but no such chemical reduction process of lithium salts to lithium metal exists ("...by mixing a few chemicals and minerals") to "create" lithium.

Ignorance trying to justify a compete stranger's ignorance is comical and weird.
Can you create jewelry from gold ore? I'd say so.
 

Thread Starter

MrSalts

Joined Apr 2, 2020
2,767
Jewelry designs, yes. Elements, no.
Were you a D student in your 8th grade English/Language Arts classes?
 

rsjsouza

Joined Apr 21, 2014
383
@rsjsouza , I wasn't searching for an article on lithium, I was just reading new content on what I thought was a science-engineering oriented website. Discovering the level of ignorance on the site was a bit stunning.
I get your initial intent now. Thanks for the clarification.

BTW, SEO is indeed affected by the publishing date of an article, a minimal number of words/sentences on the main frame of the page, a limited number of internal and external hyperlinks at the first "n" words (so it is not confused with an aggregator or clickbait site) and other things. That is the name of the game for prerty much anything you put out there on the interwebs, either Google, Youtube, etc.
 
Top