BAN DIHYDROGEN MONOXIDE!

[Nacho]

So... we should change H2O by beer in our diets? 

[TerranRich]

Hydrogen Peroxide is good.. But why don't they call it Hydrogen Dioxide? It's forumla is just H202, right??

RIGHT??

RIGHT!!!

[dasjoe]

hydrogen (su)peroxide, it means that it has one oxygen-thingy more than usual.
it's some special stuff

[Haddas]

So... we should change H2O by beer in our diets? 

Wouldn't work. Beer has H2O in it

[SSH]

Peroxide is speical, apparently...

http://educate-yourself.org/cancer/benefitsofhydrogenperozide17jul03.shtml

[Vel]

Oh my God, there are people who actually FELL for this.

[juncmodule]

Origins:Ã,  Ã, 

In 1997, Nathan Zohner, a 14-year-old student at Eagle Rock Junior High School in Idaho Falls, based his science fair project on a report similar to the one reproduced above. Zohner's project, titled "How Gullible Are We?", involved presenting this reportÃ,  about "the dangers of dihyrogen monoxide" to fifty ninth-grade students and asking them what (if anything) should be done about the chemical. Forty-three students favored banning it, six were undecided, and only one correctly recognized that 'dihydrogen monoxide' is actually H2O - plain old water. Zohner's analysis of the results he obtained won him first prize in the Greater Idaho Falls Science Fair; garnered him scads of attention from newspapers, magazines, radio and TV stations, universities, and congresspeople; and prompted the usual round of outcries about how our ignorant citizenry doesn't read critically and can be easily misled. In other words, a tempest in a teapot.

Zohner's project wasn't original: spoof petitions about dihydrogen monoxide and other innocuous "dangers" have been circulating for years, and Zohner based his project on a bogus report that was already making the rounds of the Internet. Moreover, Zohner's target audience was ninth-graders, a group highly susceptible to allowing peer pressure to overwhelm critical thinking. Thrust any piece of paper at the average high school student with a suggestion about what the "correct" response to it should be, and peer pressure pretty much assures you'll get the answer you're looking for. Someone that age isn't very likely to read a friend's petition calling for the banning of whale hunting and critically evaluate the socio-economic and environmental impact of such a regulation. Instead, he's probably going to say to himself, "This issue is obviously important to my friend, and he must have some good reasons for circulating the petition, so I'll sign it."

That said, this example does aptly demonstrate the kind of fallacious reasoning that's thrust at us every day under the guise of "important information": how with a little effort, even the most innocuous of substances can be made to sound like a dangerous threat to human life. The next time you receive an ominous message such as the one warning you that sodium lauryl sulfate (a common foaming ingredient used in shampoos) causes cancer, with the "proof" being that this caustic chemical is also used to scrub garage floors, keep in mind that the very same thing could be said of another ubiquitous cleaning agent . . . dihydrogen monoxide.

Update:Ã,  Ã, In March 2004 the California municipality of Aliso Viejo (a suburb in Orange County) came within a cat's whisker of falling for this hoax after a paralegal there convinced city officials of the danger posed by this chemical. The leg-pull got so far as a vote having been scheduled for the City Council on a proposed law that would have banned the use of foam containers at city-sponsored events because (among other things) they were made with DHMO, a substance that could "threaten human health and safety."

[Ryukage]

Hydrogen Peroxide is good.. But why don't they call it Hydrogen Dioxide? It's forumla is just H202, right??

RIGHT??

Hydrogen Dioxide would be HO2, a very improbable combination.  You might call H2O2 Dihydrogen Dioxide, but the convention is to not put a prefix on the first element unless you have to, so they call it Hydrogen Peroxide, meaning one oxygen for each hydrogen.

[Rave]

c.. in its gaseous state it may cause severe burns.

Water vapor can burn me? I dun get it. Does that mean steam or somthing, because dihydrogen monoxide in its liquid state at boiling temp would do worse, eh?

[Wahoo]

Hydrogen Peroxide is good.. But why don't they call it Hydrogen Dioxide? It's forumla is just H202, right??

RIGHT??

Hydrogen Dioxide would be HO2, a very improbable combination.Ã,  You might call H2O2 Dihydrogen Dioxide, but the convention is to not put a prefix on the first element unless you have to, so they call it Hydrogen Peroxide, meaning one oxygen for each hydrogen.

improbable as in impossible...

[DragonRose]

Water vapor can burn me? I dun get it. Does that mean steam or somthing, because dihydrogen monoxide in its liquid state at boiling temp would do worse, eh?

Yes, it does mean steam.  That is H20 in a gaseous state.  Water vapour (The stuff you get from a humidifier) is just very fine dropplets of water, so it's still technically liquid.

And steam burns worse than boiling water. I've got scars to proove it.  :'(

[Gregjazz]

I've heard this one a long time ago.

[LGM]

In the film Bone Collector, a woman is tied infront of a steam vent, and is blasted with it. They find her later and her face is melted.

Last time I checked, boiling water doesn't quite do that..

[Damien]

Boling water doesn't. Steam might.

[Meowster]

This stuff is also lethal if you inhale it through your nose.

[LGM]

Damien.. That's what I just said ;-p

[TerranRich]

Yufster, that was already said in the original post -- lethal if inhaled.

And change your name back, for heaven's sake.

[Meowster]

Damn. And No.

[LGM]

She just has abnormal testosterone(sp?) levels and would like to be considered a male for when she goes to Brittens so she's not the minority.