Trivium: Epsom Salts

[230RN]

 

For a long time I've been wondering about the origin of the word "Epsom" in Epsom Salts, magnesium sulphate, MgSO₄ which I routinely take for Mg MDR. (Minimum Daily Rquirement).

Finally got a break from fending off some slings and arrows (Hamlet, Act III, Scene I) and looked it up.  Turns out it's the name of a town in England where it was commonly produced.

Wiki even has a nice little video of the burg:

https://youtu.be/P8rDrwNL_LY (2:48)

I liked their "Happy To Chat" park bench.

It's good when you get a chance to check out some trivia now and again.

Terry

[Lennyjoe]

Hell I thought you were talking about the band Trivium…… 

[Nick1911]

More fun trivia: grocery store epsom salts are a hydrate: MgSO₄·7H₂O

About half of the mass is from water chemically bound up in the crystals.

[230RN]

Well, that's a given with a lot of salts... and the dot-H₂O changes even in the same compound. I believe the cobalt salts change color depending on how much water they take up in varying ambient humidities.

I was going to remark that it's getting close to impossible to look anything up without getting hits on rock band names as well.

Now I wonder if trivium is the proper singular for trivia.  There are some words where the singular and th plural are the same.  I think "species" is an example, isn't it?

[AZRedhawk44]

Now I wonder if trivium is the proper singular for trivia.  There are some words where the singular and th plural are the same.  I think "species" is an example, isn't it?

I don't believe trivium is a proper singular for trivia.  "The Trivium" (with a capital T) is a system of education focusing on three principles of Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric.  They were prerequisites for a subsequent education system called the Quadrivium.  The Quadrivium consisted of Astronomy, Arithmetic, Music, and Geometry.

I'm a big fan of the Trivium as an educational system because a huge focus of it is to sift fact from opinion.  Grammar and Logic are used to define and comprehend facts of various types.  Rhetoric is the act of theorizing or convincing others of the fundamental understanding of a fact.  Teaching that type of discriminating thought to children before Junior High School is not something that mainstream public schools care for.

[230RN]

I don't believe trivium is a proper singular for trivia.  "The Trivium" (with a capital T) is a system of education focusing on three principles of Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric.  They were prerequisites for a subsequent education system called the Quadrivium.  The Quadrivium consisted of Astronomy, Arithmetic, Music, and Geometry.

I'm a big fan of the Trivium as an educational system because a huge focus of it is to sift fact from opinion.  Grammar and Logic are used to define and comprehend facts of various types.  Rhetoric is the act of theorizing or convincing others of the fundamental understanding of a fact.  Teaching that type of discriminating thought to children before Junior High School is not something that mainstream public schools care for.

That's interesting because the combined approaches sound like the Freshman Orientation classes we took at Brooklyn Technical High School back in the early fifties.  I forget whether it was one or two weeks' worth of Orientation, and they did not label the material as Trivium or Quadrivium and they had a little more emphasis on study methods per se.  Your "Quadrivium" was mostly left for the actual classes in the next four years. 

I don't believe Music was included, since it was a technical school... and no girls at the time... but I do remember us briefly going over the logarithmic relationship of the frequencies of the musical scale.  But don't ask me about that now, 70ish years later.

Thanks for that pedagogical insight !


Terry, 230RN

REF:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn_Technical_High_School

[Devonai]

I've been making my own mineral water for a few months now. Per liter of water, add 1/2 teaspoon each of sodium bicarbonate, potassium bicarbonate, and magnesium sulfate. Tastes like the stuff my hosts gave me in the Czech Republic.

[230RN]

I gotta lay off the sodium.  As mentioned (elsewhere) I use calcium carbonate (Tums for the tummy Tums) in my coffee basket.

As it happens, I was recently calculating the weights of various elements in the form of their compounds with a view toward mixing up a batch of one size fits all supplements.  Kind of parked that aside for a while.  Right now I'm looking for some potassium iodide for its iodine content.  I get potassium from
"No Salt" salt substitute.

[zxcvbob]

I gotta lay off the sodium.  As mentioned (elsewhere) I use calcium carbonate (Tums for the tummy Tums) in my coffee basket.

As it happens, I was recently calculating the weights of various elements in the form of their compounds with a view toward mixing up a batch of one size fits all supplements.  Kind of parked that aside for a while.  Right now I'm looking for some potassium iodide for its iodine content.  I get potassium from
"No Salt" salt substitute.

How about tincture of iodine?  Iodine is reactive enough, something will reduce it to iodide, plus I think the tincture usually has potassium iodide too for some reason.

[230RN]

I don't use the tincture internally except for sterilzing my emergency supply of water.  I'd want the solid potassiium salt (KI) so I could precisely calculate the ioding content for my MDR mix.

I think KI is also used to protect the thyroid from radioctive iodine because it will get to the thyroid and block later uptake of the radioactive iodine.  Someone correct me on that.

My mother thought the tincture was a Gawdsend since it was good for puncture wounds and just about anything that itched. I guess its reactivity destroyed the itchants. 

[zxcvbob]

A doc recently prescribed potassium chloride pills for my mom.  They were larger than I expected (slow release KCl), but what really surprised me was the all the excess packaging.  They were in hard-to-open blister packs, with not many pills per sheet, and then an oversized box.  Not sure what that's all about, except maybe to make accidental overdose harder?  I expected a small bottle with a child-resistant cap, and 100 pills about the size of baby aspirins.

[230RN]

A prescription for potassium chloride?



Morton also has a KCl salt susbstitute.

Available in spice aisle of any store.

Yeah, it's slightly radioactive, and yeah, they use massive doses intravenously for executing prisoners, but unless precision doses are required for some metric, I wonder why a prescription is necessary.

[K Frame]

God but potassium chloride as a salt substitute tastes absolutely awful...

If I'm ever presented with the option of dropping salt and using a substitute, I'll use lemon juice and vinegar.

[zxcvbob]

A prescription for potassium chloride?



Morton also has a KCl salt susbstitute.

Available in spice aisle of any store.

Yeah, it's slightly radioactive, and yeah, they use massive doses intravenously for executing prisoners, but unless precision doses are required for some metric, I wonder why a prescription is necessary.

I think Morton's is half NaCl and half KCl.  I've not seen the No-Salt brand.  (I bet it tastes awful)  I have no idea about the prescription or all the excess packaging for the KCl pills.

I was looking for KCl last year to use when making mead because honey doesn't have enough K for the yeast.  I ended up using a pinch of KCl ice melter that I already had made.  I didn't want to buy a 40# bag of no-sodium water softener salt just to use a few grams.  I swiped a couple of Mom's pills for next time since she refuses to take them.