Help Sessions Read Free

recent quiz over the two-flask connected with a stopcock problem.
    “Since you ladies score tens on Dr. Hunter’s quizzes, you may not know what his zeroes look like. It’s a zero with an “X” through it. His infamous cartwheel—what I netted on the two-flask problem.”
    “That problem is simple. You’re given the temperature, pressure, and volume in each flask and asked what those parameters are after the stopcock joining them is opened.”
    Heather then proceeded to write the figures down, point to them, set up the formulas, and zipped her slide rule scales rapidly, showing the answers.
    “Whoa! You make it seem so easy, Heather.” Roy understood her treatment of the problem.
    “Do you think you could handle a problem with multiple flasks?” Heather laid her slide rule down and crossed her hands, looking intently at him.
    “Eh, well, I…”
    Heather predicted such a problem might appear on the test and instructed both Roy and Greta on how to work that problem. Continuing her assertiveness, Heather asked Roy another question, one that embarrassed him.
    “Do you know how to use every scale on the slide rule, Roy?”
    “No.”
    “You’d better set aside time to look into your slide rule manual. When we get to chemical kinetics later, you’ll need to know how to use the unusual scales on the back.”
    After working the last few and most difficult of the problems, Heather made a request of Roy before they called it a night. At last, Roy thought, he could make a contribution that might stretch his contact with Heather to another help session and perhaps dispel his dunce feelings.
    “That last p-chem experiment with determining the transference number of silver didn’t turn out very accurately for me. Have any idea why, Roy?” Heather asked, pulling out her lab notebook and flipping to the appropriate page. Roy admired her feminine cursive writing, so neat and perfect.
    He examined the notes she and Greta had on the experiment, determining her milliampere reading was low, causing the silver deposit to be incomplete.
    “That can’t be. The meter had the correct reading. I double-checked it.” Heather’s face reddened slightly.
    “The only way the meter could have been wrong would be the internal resistor being off. I know it was right, because Mr. Cortessis had me check all of them. I work in the lab after hours. Perhaps you had parallax error. That would happen if you didn’t look directly at the meter but viewed it at an angle,” Roy said, hoping not to insult Heather’s intelligence. Heather’s expression mellowed a bit, and she nodded. Although Heather’s grade for the experiment was still a B+, Roy appreciated her demand for perfection. They packed up their books, and Roy retrieved their coats, making an observation about the experiment as he did so.
    “Most people think of silver as a bright shiny metal, but didn’t you think those buff-colored silver crystals were beautiful?” Roy’s mind went back to the delicate tan-colored crystals clinging to the immersed electrode.
    “You find beauty in the oddest places, Roy,” Heather said, as she put on her coat, Roy helping her with one sleeve.
    “And beauty in obvious places, too,” Roy added. Greta smiled at that remark as he breached into personal territory in a more than subtle way. If Heather caught that remark, she didn’t let on. He had met her eyes head-on when he said it and included a grin, so the remark couldn’t be construed to be meant for Greta.
    “Thank you, Heather and Greta, for letting me study with you. I feel better about going into that test tomorrow.” Roy gave Greta a quick glance with his thanks but continued to make most of his eye contact with Heather.
    “You’re welcome,” Heather answered, nodding her head slightly, centering her soul-searching eyes on him.
    “You’ll do okay tomorrow, Roy. I think you sell yourself short on understanding these problems,” Greta said, as Roy helped her with her