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[methylatedspirit]

A few hours ago, I made soap again, this time using coconut oil. For some reason, the entire mixture of water, lye, soap and oil bubbled up into this foam that had solid soap in it. I had to collect the foam and wash off the bubbles to get the soap.

Also, since I adapted this one from a recipe online, I now know that the first soap batch likely has an excess of lye. Oops. On that note, how do I calculate the amount of lye (NaOH) needed to make some amount of soap?

[Frumple]

I'm no soap maker, but plugging "how to calculate lye for soap" sans quotes into google pulled up a bunch of stuff including actual calculators for the question. Give that a gander, you have a better idea how legit the results are than most folks around here if you're already producing stuff.

[Trekkin]

Also, since I adapted this one from a recipe online, I now know that the first soap batch likely has an excess of lye. Oops. On that note, how do I calculate the amount of lye (NaOH) needed to make some amount of soap?

Well, you can obtain saponification values for a given type of oil from the manufacturer; it will usually be either a mass ratio of oil to KOH or an outright molar ratio, but either way you'll need to convert for lye.

Alternatively, have you thought about just testing the pH directly? Depending on what oils you're using or if you want to try getting into blended oil, it can be more reliable to just check the pH than to try to calculate it ahead of time (since actual oil composition can vary), and litmus paper is pretty cheap. Just wet the soap, set the paper on it, and you know you used too much lye if the pH exceeds about 10.

[wierd]

The usual method is to do a "ghetto titration" with your oil before cooking the batch.  Measure a small but consistent volume of oil, produce a "ghetto known concentration" (ahem) solution of lye and water by measuring the weights of both products before solution, (We aren't making pharmaceuticals here, after all.) then using an indicator (such as lithmus paper or a liquid indicator solution), add the lye to the warmed oil one drop at a time using an eye dropper.  Count how many drops it takes for the oil to stop neutralizing the alkalinity of the lye solution.  That's will give you what you need to calculate your idea lye ratio for that batch of oil.

REAL titration uses calibrated solutions and proper tools, like a buret. But then again, we aren't teaching wet chemistry here, or are we trying to make human-use pharmaceuticals. This is just soap. "Close", with just a slight excess of lipid in the end product, is just fine.

Here's a wet-chem lesson plan for doing this with a buret.
http://www.terrificscience.org/lessonpdfs/09FattyAcids.pdf

You will get "good enough" results with a 50mL eye dropper, at 1mL increments (approx 1 drop).  You still need a "known concentration" (ahem) solution.  Weigh out some lye on some filter paper and some water in a glass container on a zeroed gram scale, then slowly add the lye to the water. This will give you a "good enough for this purpose" known solution.

[McTraveller]

I asked the Internet for synonyms for "Generalist".  It gave me "specialist" as one of the options.


(Must've been something goofy with the mobile search; my desktop search doesn't reproduce the same list.)
Got it - in google search for "synonyms for generalist":

Synonyms for Generalist:
the intelligentsia,
observer,
specialist,
intellectual,
expert,
pundit,
authority,
veteran,

[Akura]

Oh dammit, I just realized I needed to go from Win7 to Win10 to use my headset. I have no idea how I forgot that particular step.

[Naturegirl1999]

I asked the Internet for synonyms for "Generalist".  It gave me "specialist" as one of the options.


(Must've been something goofy with the mobile search; my desktop search doesn't reproduce the same list.)
Got it - in google search for "synonyms for generalist":

Synonyms for Generalist:
the intelligentsia,
observer,
specialist,
intellectual,
expert,
pundit,
authority,
veteran,

I think google is confusing what synonyms are vs antonyms in this case. Not sure why.

[Mathel]

Perhaps it thinks they are synonyms.

[Naturegirl1999]

Why, though? How do you think pundit=expert=generalist=specialist=authority=veteran?

[Il Palazzo]

These all mean 'a knowledgeable person'.

[Rolan7]

Oh dammit, I just realized I needed to go from Win7 to Win10 to use my headset. I have no idea how I forgot that particular step.

That sucks that you have to return your headset!
(really though there's no way I'd leave 7 for a headset. Gimmicks like that are how they trick/force people to switch.)

[Akura]

Oh dammit, I just realized I needed to go from Win7 to Win10 to use my headset. I have no idea how I forgot that particular step.

That sucks that you have to return your headset!
(really though there's no way I'd leave 7 for a headset. Gimmicks like that are how they trick/force people to switch.)

I'm probably just going to go with my original plan: get a new SSD, clone my current drive to it, then put Windows 10 on that one, switching back in case Win10 blows anything up. The only reason I didn't already was because when I ordered the headset, I had an SSD in the cart with it, only for it to tell me just before I put in the order the SSD was no longer available.

Plus, Win7 isn't going to be supported for much longer. Not sure how long before important things get locked out because of that(it's already happening with some software).

Trying to install the Oculus software anyways. It already bricked itself once, possibly because the controllers were on the other side of the room, too far away to connect with the headset.

[Reelya]

I asked the Internet for synonyms for "Generalist".  It gave me "specialist" as one of the options.


(Must've been something goofy with the mobile search; my desktop search doesn't reproduce the same list.)
Got it - in google search for "synonyms for generalist":

Synonyms for Generalist:
the intelligentsia,
observer,
specialist,
intellectual,
expert,
pundit,
authority,
veteran,

If you check, Google is just web-scraping that entire list from thesaurus.net

You should complain to thesaurus.net, because Google didn't come up with that list:

https://www.thesaurus.net/generalist

Definition for Generalist:

    a modern scholar who is in a position to acquire more than superficial knowledge about many different interests; " a statistician has to be something of a generalist"

Synonyms for Generalist:

    n.
        • the intelligentsia, observer, specialist, intellectual, expert, pundit, authority, veteran, professional, consultant.

[Naturegirl1999]

Ok. How do we contact thesaurus.net about the error? Searching contact thesaurus.net brings synonyms for contact

[A Thing]

Ok. How do we contact thesaurus.net about the error? Searching contact thesaurus.net brings synonyms for contact

https://www.thesaurus.net/contact-us