Read Chemistry (Supplement to the Nitrogen Cycle Video)

Though the video isn't out yet, we wanted to go ahead and present this before we begin the Nitrogen Cycle Experiment.

While setting up the experiments and researching we had a white board with equations on it, and realized some of you would like to know exactly what those letters and numerics mean. We like visual representations, so here's this, color coordinated.

Ammonia (NH3)

Processed by Nitrobacter equals:

Nitrites (No2)

Processed by Nitrobacter and Nitrospira equals:

Nitrate (NO3)

So the process of Ammonia all the way to Nitrites:

2NH3 - 3O2 - 2 NO2- +2H+ + 2H2O

And from Nitrites to Nitrates:

2 No2- + O2 - 2NO3-

The above is a impromtpu version of what we wrote in the white board. The number of atoms are usually found in subscript while the excited/ionized state in read by the + or - symbol in superscript, so the above doesn't quiet do it justice (the web editor only allows us to do so much).

Basically:

The minus minus sign reads the Ionized state.

-

NO The NO to the left is the abbreviated name for Nitrogen Oxide.

2

The 2 above would be subscript, and denote the number of atoms.

That's a very basic example of what it means. Though it's not necessary to understand what those numbers and symbols might mean, it could open the door to more intriguing discussions and may come into play later on.