Friday, March 20, 2020

Testing Employees for Drugs essays

Testing Employees for Drugs essays Testing employees for the use of drugs, regardless of the occupation, has been a controversial issue for years. Obviously, those who use drugs, including those not considered hard drugs such as marijuana, feel that it is a violation of their right to privacy. And they are right! However, that is only viewing this issue from a deontological perspective. The utilitarian perspective offers quite a different view. From this perspective, drug testing the employees of a company is the solution that is for the greater good for the greatest number of people for the longest amount of time. Imagine if drug testing did nor exist. Chances are that eventually an incident such as an airplane pilot overdosing on drugs would occur, producing devastating results. Therefore, there are certain occupations that are required to undergo mandatory drug testing. The drug testing of millions of transportation workers-largely bus and truck drivers, airline flight crews and mechanics, and a variety of r ailroad workers-is required by the government in the name of public safety. Its easy to see why employers are concerned about their employees using drugs. Compared with the overage employee, recreational drug users are more than two times more likely to be late for work, almost four times more likely to injure themselves or others in the workplace, and five times more likely to file a workers compensation claim. For the small price of a drug test employees can gain much more security and have that added insurance that they will be able to operate a safer and more efficient workplace As the articles continues to state, drug testing is not as simple as it may appear. Employers are not able to just send their employees down the street to the local testing facility for drug tests. For example, Connecticut has many rules and regulations regarding drug testing. Many of these regulations exist due to the in...

Wednesday, March 4, 2020

Why Adding Salt to Water Increases the Boiling Point

Why Adding Salt to Water Increases the Boiling Point If you add salt to water, you increase its boiling point. The temperature will increase about a one-half degree Celsius for every 58 grams of dissolved salt  per kilogram of water.  This is an example of boiling point elevation. The property isnt exclusive to water. It occurs any time you add a non-volatile solute (such as salt) to a solvent (e.g. water). But How Does It Work? Water boils when the molecules are able to overcome the vapor pressure of the surrounding air to move from the liquid phase to the gas phase. A few different processes occur when you add a solute that increases the amount of energy (heat) needed for water to make the transition. When you add salt to water, sodium chloride dissociates into sodium and chlorine ions. These charged particles alter the intermolecular forces between water molecules. In addition to affecting the hydrogen bonding between water molecules, there is an ion-dipole interaction to consider. Every water molecule is a dipole, which means one side (the oxygen side) is more negative and the other side (the hydrogen side) is more positive. The positively-charged sodium ions align with the oxygen side of a water molecule, while the negatively charged chlorine ions align with the hydrogen side of a water molecule. The ion-dipole interaction is stronger than the hydrogen bonding between the water molecules, so more energy is needed to move water away from the ions and into the vapor phase. Even without a charged solute, adding particles to water raises the boiling point because part of the pressure the solution exerts on the atmosphere now comes from solute particles, not just solvent (water) molecules. The water molecules need more energy to produce enough pressure to escape the boundary of the liquid. The more salt (or any solute) added to water, the more you raise the boiling point. The phenomenon depends on the number of particles formed in the solution. Freezing point depression is another colligative property that works the same way, so if you add salt to water you lower its freezing point as well as raise its boiling point. The Boiling Point of NaCl When you dissolve salt in water, it breaks into sodium and chloride ions. If you boiled all the water off, the ions would recombine to form solid salt. However, there is no danger of boiling the NaCl. The boiling point of sodium chloride is 2575 degrees F or 1413 degrees C. Salt, like other ionic solids, has an extremely high boiling point.