Random Science Poems Written on the Spot

Tonight, I was at a loss for what to blog about. The prompts I have available are not as inspiring as usual. So I asked the hive mind for suggestions:

@paleololigo Acid?

— Liana Brooks (@LianaBrooks) March 28, 2013

Then the poems came…

.@paleololigo Little Billy was a chemist.Little Billy is no more.What he thought was H2OWas really H2SO4.

— Liana Brooks (@LianaBrooks) March 28, 2013

 

Same poem, different name…

@paleololigo Johnny was a scientist. Johnny is no more. For what he thought was H2O was H2SO4.

— Pablo Arroyo (@parroyo9) March 28, 2013

 

I knew what I had to do:

Hydrochloric Acid

Hydrochloric was acid,
We went out to the field.
He leapt and dripped onto the rocks,
To see what they would yield.

If the rock had carbonate,
That little CO₂.
Hydrochloric would fizz much,
To show that fact to you.

Phosphoric Acid

Oh, phosphoric acid, how do I love thee?
Let me count the ways:
When anhydrous your concentration is 103%.
And by that I don’t know what is meant.
You’re so strong you dissolve teeth,
But not the glass that lies beneath.
But if it weren’t for you I’d never know,
δ¹³C or δ¹⁸O.
And without these we’d never see,
The way things were or how they could turn out to be.

Hydrofluoric Acid

They claim I’m a weak acid.
My H+ not so strong.
But have you met Fluorine?
He’s more menacing all along.

Don’t let me get upon you.
One drop! Call EMT!
I’ll dissolve your bones from inside out.
It’s true, just wait and see.

But if you need some quartz dissolved,
Or a phosphorus bond to break.
I’m your pal, your trusted aid,
Just be careful for goodness sake!

And because we always need a paleontology poem. I’ll call it,

I totally know that this ain’t so!

There once was a mammal called Phenacodus.
He lived along side Plesiadapis.
It was said not uncertainly,
That neither could possibly be,
Alive a the same time as Tetraclaenodon

And finally:

The King of the Condylarths

The dearest of sweet Phenacodus
Dreamt to be King, the POTUS
Fought ‘gainst Tetraclaenodon
That the crown he might don
But it turned out in fact it was him.