Railway Science (Chemistry-Miscellaneous)

It is a synthetic, barbiturate-like, central nervous system depressant drug. Ergoapiol is used as a cure for all menstrual disorders. Laudanum is used to treat insomnia, headaches, menstrual cramps, colic in babies.
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) : Established - 26 September 1942, Headquarters - New Delhi. It is the largest research and development organization in India.

The hydrophilic head contains polar ions such as carboxylate ions and is water-soluble and the hydrophobic tail contains a nonpolar carbon chain and is oil soluble. Saponification - The process of creating soap. Soaps are potassium or sodium salts of long-chain fatty acids.

Its calorific value is 150000 kJ/kg. Calorific value - The amount of heat energy produced on complete combustion of 1 kg of a fuel.
Unit of calorific value - kilojoule per kg (kJ/kg). Calorific value of LPG (Liquified Petroleum Gas): 55000 kJ/kg, Methane: 50000 kJ/kg, Compressed Natural Gas (CNG): 50000 kJ/kg. Fuel efficiency is expressed in terms of its calorific value.

Chocolates - Contain heavy metals like cadmium (Cd) (48) , lead (Pb) (82), nickel (Ni) (28). Nickel (Ni) - The most abundant toxic metal and its presence creates a serious risk to children’s health.
Cocoa-based candies have higher metal content in comparison to milk or sugar-based candies. Cocoa, or cacao, is the dried and fully fermented fatty seed of the fruit of the cocoa tree, Theobroma cacao.
The heavy metal contamination can result from unsafe storage conditions or raw materials such as cocoa beans, cocoa solids, and cocoa butter.

Fermentation is a metabolic process that produces chemical changes in organic substances through the action of enzymes. In biochemistry, it is narrowly defined as the extraction of energy from carbohydrates in the absence of oxygen. In a physical change, no new substance is formed, it is easily reversible (original substance can be recovered).
Examples - boiling, melting, freezing, shredding. A chemical change is always accompanied by one or more new substances. They are irreversible (original substance cannot be recovered). Examples - Burning, cooking, rusting and rotting.

The Global Warming Potential (GWP) was developed to allow comparisons of the global warming impacts of different gasses. Specifically, it is a measure of how much energy the emissions of 1 ton of a gas will absorb over a given period of time, relative to the emissions of 1 ton of carbon dioxide (CO₂).
The larger the GWP, the more that a given gas warms the Earth compared to CO₂ over that time period. Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF₆) are sometimes called high-GWP gasses.

It is an odorless, gaseous mixture of hydrocarbons, predominantly made up of methane (CH₄). It is mainly used as fuel for generating electricity and heat.

Smog - It is an air pollution (mixture of smoke and fog) phenomenon that reduces visibility. Types : Photochemical Smog - It is formed when sunlight reacts with nitrogen oxides and at least one volatile organic compound (VOC) in the atmosphere.
Pollutants that contribute to photochemical smog include oxides of nitrogen such as nitric oxide, nitrogen dioxide, and nitrous oxide.
Sulphurous Smog- It is created by the burning of sulfur - bearing fossil fuels, primarily coal, which results in a high concentration of sulphur oxides in the air.

Non-renewable sources of energy (once consumed and cannot be restored) - Fossil fuels, like natural gas, coal, and oil. Renewable source of energy - Energy derived from natural sources that are replenished at a higher rate than they are consumed. Example - Sunlight and wind.
An inexhaustible source of energy - The sources which cannot be finished by human activities. For example sunlight. Alternative sources of energy - Wind Energy, Geothermal Energy, Hydroelectric Energy, Hydrogen Energy.

Plasma (Fourth state of matter) - A mixture of free electrons and ions. It occurs naturally in the stars (including the Sun). It is a form of matter in which many of the electrons wander around freely among the nuclei of the atoms. Inside the stars, the temperature is so high that the atoms break up.