what is borax?

Question

need to get some for a 2nd grade science project

Answer 1

Borax is a complex borate mineral that is found in playa lakes and other evaporite deposits. The basic structure of borax contains chains of interlocking BO2(OH) triangles and BO3(OH) tetrahedrons bonded to chains of sodium and water octahedrons. Most old mineral specimens of borax are chalky white due to a chemical reaction from dehydration. They have actually altered (at least on their surface) to the mineral tincalconite, Na2 B4O7-5H2O, with the loss of water. This kind of alteration from one mineral to another leaves the original shape of the crystal. Minerologists refer to this as a pseudomorph, or "fake shape", because the tincalconite has the crystal shape of the predecessing borax.
Borax is directly deposited in arid regions from the evaporation of water in intermittent lakes called playas. The playas form only during rainy seasons due to runoff from adjacent mountains. The runoff is rich in the element boron and is highly concentrated by evaporation in the arid climate. Eventually the concentration is so great that crystals of borax and other boron minerals form.


PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS:
Color is white to clear.
Luster is vitreous.
Transparency crystals are transparent to translucent.
Crystal System is monoclinic; 2/m
Crystal Habits include the blocky to prismatic crystals with a nearly square cross section. Also massive and as crusts.
Cleavage is perfect in one direction.
Fracture is conchoidal.
Hardness is 2 - 2.5
Specific Gravity is approximately 1.7 (very light)
Streak is white.
Associated Minerals are calcite, halite, hanksite, colemanite, ulexite and other borates.
Other Characteristics: a sweet alkaline taste, alters to chalky white tincalconite with dehydration.
Notable Occurrences include Trona, Boron, Death Valley and other California localities; Andes Mountains; Turkey and Tibet.
Best Field Indicators are crystal habit, color, associations, locality, density and hardness.
The BORAX Experiments, boiling reactor experiments, were a series of tests using the BORAX-I nuclear reactor which proved Samuel Untermyer's 1952 theory that a reactor using direct boiling of water would be practical, rather than unstable because of the bubble formation in the core. Subsequently the reactor was used for power excursion tests which showed that rapid conversion of steam to water would safely control the reaction. The final, deliberately destructive, test produced an unexpectedly large power excursion and provided additional useful data to improve mathematical models. The tests proved key safety principles of the design of modern nuclear power reactors. Design power of BORAX-I was 1.4 megawatts thermal.

Subsequently the BORAX-II reactor proved the principles of pressurised water reactors, with a design output of 6 MW(t).

BORAX-II, modified into BORAX-III with the addition of a turbine, proved that turbine contamination would not be a problem. It was linked to the local power grid and for about an hour on July 17, 1955, it provided 2,000 kW to power nearby Arco, Idaho (500 kW), the BORAX test facility (500 kW), and partially power the National Reactor Testing Station (now the Idaho National Laboratory) (1,000 kW). Thus Arco became the first city solely powered by nuclear energy. The reactor continued to be used for tests until 1956.

Answer 2

Sodium borate, or sodium tetraborate, or disodium tetraborate. You can find it in the grocery soap department made by Boraxo. It is used as a cleaner. It is a powder like detergent.

Answer 3

It's a cleaning agent, you can likely find it in the laundry isle at the grocery store. It's white powder and it's in a box.

Answer 4

you can find it in the laundry section at any gorcery store . its a laundry booster. Its essientally sodium borate. its used in many things... to kill ants, in enamal glazes, pottery, as fire retardant.

and to make slime for 2nd graders

Answer 5

http://mineral.galleries.com/minerals/carbonat/borax/borax.htm

Answer 6

they just mine it

20 mules or something haul it out of there

buy it at a supermarket, in the laundry section

$5 maybe

Answer 7

sodium borate...an industrial ingredient for various products such as soap, glass and ceramics.

Answer 8

I think it's a powdered bleach