Common Names For Everyday Chemicals Quiz

Answer: Saltpetre

Potassium nitrate has the chemical formula KNO3. In its mineral form it is known as saltpetre or nitre (saltpeter or niter to Americans), and often occurs as a white, powdery deposit on the walls of caves. It has many uses, including as an ingredient in fertiliser and gunpowder.

Answer: Table salt

Sodium chloride has the chemical formula NaCl. As table salt, it has been used as both a food flavouring and preservative for many thousands of years and was a valuable commodity in numerous ancient civilisations. It can be extracted from sea water by evaporation or mined from underground deposits.

Answer: Chalk

Calcium carbonate has the chemical formula CaCO3. As well as chalk (a form of limestone), it also occurs in nature as the principal component in eggshells, as well as the shells of snails and oysters.

In its most common "household" form, chalk is found in white sticks used by children to write on blackboards. At one time, the "chalk on blackboard" method was common in school classrooms, although these days it is usually only seen in cartoons.

Answer: Vinegar

Acetic acid has the chemical formula CH3COOH. In its pure form it has various industrial uses, including in the production of various synthetic fabrics, as well as wood glue and photographic film. However, when diluted with water it forms vinegar, with most table vinegar containing around 4% to 8% acetic acid. You probably shouldn't sprinkle the undiluted form on your chips/French fries, though.

Answer: Surgical spirit/rubbing alcohol

Isopropanol has the chemical formula CH3CHOHCH3. It is sold for household use as "rubbing alcohol" in the United States and "surgical spirit" in the UK. In the US it was originally sold as a liniment to be rubbed into the skin during a therapeutic massage, hence its common name in that country. These days, it is most often used as an antiseptic on scratches and cuts.

Answer: Baking soda

Sodium bicarbonate has the chemical formula NaHCO3 and is also known as bicarbonate of soda. It is also a major ingredient in baking powder, although the latter also includes acid salts and stabilisers such as corn-starch.

As the name suggests, baking soda is commonly used as a leavening agent in cookery, especially when making cakes or biscuits.

Answer: Laughing gas

Nitrous oxide is a colourless, odourless gas with the chemical formula NO2. Unlike some of the other chemicals in this quiz, you probably won't have any of it in your house, unless you live over a dentist's surgery.

However, most people have heard of it through its nickname of "laughing gas", which it was given because, when used as an anaesthetic, it has a mildly euphoric effect. It is often used as a partial anaesthetic in dentistry, and to relieve the pains of childbirth.

Answer: Bleach

Sodium hypochlorite has the chemical formula NaOCl. In its solid form it is unstable and dangerously explosive, but fortunately if you have any in your house it will be in its liquid, dilute form, when it is known as bleach.

As such, it is a useful cleaning agent and disinfectant, although it is still a dangerous substance and should, under no circumstances, be ingested. Even getting it on your skin or breathing the fumes can be harmful. Sodium hypochlorite has been used as a bleaching chemical since the eighteenth century.

Answer: Milk of Magnesia

Magnesium Hydroxide has the chemical formula Mg(OH)2. In its natural form it is a white solid and is sold as "Milk of Magnesia" as a suspension in water. As such, it can be used as a laxative and to relieve stomach upsets and indigestion.

The pharmacist Charles Phillips (1822-1888) was the first person to market it commercially, and it is still sold today as "Phillips' Milk of Magnesia" in a blue bottle than can be found in many household medicine cabinets.

Answer: Water

The idea of referring to water as "Dihydrogen monoxide" seems to date back to a 1983 April Fool's Day joke in the "Durand Express" newspaper, a local paper from Durand, Michigan, and has since been repeated elsewhere. The joke is that one can describe water in such a way as to make it sound like a dangerous chemical, and then call for it to be banned or regulated.

For example, it is deadly if inhaled (you can drown in it), can cause serious burns (when heated to boiling point), causes corrosion of metals (as rust) and is a major component of acid rain. There is a serious point behind this, in that it demonstrates how easily people can be duped into believing almost anything if it is put in a certain way.