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X-posted PSA - Best School Supply EVER :)


Dicentra
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Frixion brand erasable highlighters.  They are GENIUS.  An erasable highlighter!!  Where was this for my entire school career?? 😄

You can get standard colours:

https://www.amazon.com/Pilot-Erasable-Highlighters-Assorted-46507/dp/B0027EJ0OY/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=frixion+highlighter&qid=1565806543&s=gateway&sr=8-6

Or even pastel colours:

https://www.amazon.com/Pilot-Collection-Erasable-Highlighters-Highlighted/dp/B018KGPKE6/ref=sr_1_12?keywords=frixion&qid=1565806496&s=gateway&sr=8-12

I felt this was share worthy. 🙂

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13 minutes ago, Dicentra said:

Frixion brand erasable highlighters.  They are GENIUS.  An erasable highlighter!!  Where was this for my entire school career?? 😄

You can get standard colours:

https://www.amazon.com/Pilot-Erasable-Highlighters-Assorted-46507/dp/B0027EJ0OY/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=frixion+highlighter&qid=1565806543&s=gateway&sr=8-6

Or even pastel colours:

https://www.amazon.com/Pilot-Collection-Erasable-Highlighters-Highlighted/dp/B018KGPKE6/ref=sr_1_12?keywords=frixion&qid=1565806496&s=gateway&sr=8-12

I felt this was share worthy. 🙂

 

WARNING: They erase in the heat. It might not matter for the highlighters. But I wrote all my VBS notes in a Frixion pen (They are VERY smooth and nice) two summers ago and left it in a pile of books/supplies in the car in Texas heat and when I went to pack up supplies for VBS night, my notes were GONE.

 

Yes, I could put the notes in the freezer and the text came back (Along with everything intentionally erased)

BUT: 1) you have to discover your writing is gone in time to do it

2) They come back faint and ugly. Not as easy to read as when first written.

 

I would not recommend using Frixion pens for anything you hand in to be graded, for example.

 

 

Edited by vonfirmath
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1 minute ago, vonfirmath said:

 

WARNING: They erase in the heat. It might not matter for the highlighters. But I wrote all my VBS notes in a Frixion pen (They are VERY smooth and nice) two summers ago and left it in a pile of books/supplies in the car in Texas heat and when I went to pack up supplies for VBS night, my notes were GONE.

 

Yes, I could put the notes in the freezer and the text came back (Along with everything intentionally erased)

BUT: 1) you have to discover your writing is gone in time to do it

2) They come back faint and ugly. Not as easy to read as when first written.

 

I would not recommend using Frixion pens for anything you hand in to be graded, for example.

 

 

 

I didn't know that!  Living in Canada, I suppose it never gets that hot here. 🙂  As a chemist, this is fascinating.  Now I'm going to have to figure out what kind of ink and ink property would allow it to erase with both friction and heat.  Although, thinking about it... Friction does create heat.  So the ink is basically heat-sensitive.  That's fascinating! 🙂  Thanks, vonfirmath!

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oh, ha! Until the post by vonfirmath, I didn't click that the brand was Frixion; some quilters & seamstresses and such use their brand pen as a marking pen for marking on fabric, b/c you can iron the marks and "erase" them from the fabric. 

Very cool, though, the highlighters! 

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Apparently, the upper temp limit to the ink is 65C which probably explains why, here in central Canada, I've never experience the ink just up and disappearing on me. 😄

The chemistry behind the ink is fascinating, if anyone is interested.  The above article gives a fairly good, basic explanation.  When you "erase" the ink, it's not technically gone - it's just that the ink molecule has been uncoupled from the colour-developer molecule.  The ink is still there, just colourless. 🙂  Man... I love chemistry.

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10 minutes ago, Dicentra said:

Apparently, the upper temp limit to the ink is 65C which probably explains why, here in central Canada, I've never experience the ink just up and disappearing on me. 😄

The chemistry behind the ink is fascinating, if anyone is interested.  The above article gives a fairly good, basic explanation.  When you "erase" the ink, it's not technically gone - it's just that the ink molecule has been uncoupled from the colour-developer molecule.  The ink is still there, just colourless. 🙂  Man... I love chemistry.

 

65C is 149 deg F. It doesn't get that hot here in Texas either.  Would the intensification of being in a window/car approach that? Otherwise there must be some chance of it happening before that hot

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16 minutes ago, vonfirmath said:

 

65C is 149 deg F. It doesn't get that hot here in Texas either.  Would the intensification of being in a window/car approach that? Otherwise there must be some chance of it happening before that hot

 

Yes - the inside of a closed car would be hotter. 🙂  It rarely gets over 85F here and, based on the calculator posted above, even the inside of my car doesn't reach 149F. 🙂  But now I'm going to play around with the ink and my iron!

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56 minutes ago, Æthelthryth the Texan said:

 

It looks like 3 hours at 102 deg F outside will do it.

(my VBS documents were not in the dashboard, just on a seat)

 

ETA: And our heat index today is 113! (not the real temp surely...)

Edited by vonfirmath
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53 minutes ago, TheReader said:

oh, ha! Until the post by vonfirmath, I didn't click that the brand was Frixion; some quilters & seamstresses and such use their brand pen as a marking pen for marking on fabric, b/c you can iron the marks and "erase" them from the fabric. 

Very cool, though, the highlighters! 

A warning though, the marks have been known to return if the item becomes very cold. For example, a quilt that is taken on a camping trip because it’s soooo warm. Then, it’s warm and ugly. On their website, the company makes it clear that they didn’t test the pens on fabric and they aren’t intended to be used on fabric. I have not personally known anyone who has had their marks return, I’ve just heard it has happened. Most quilters “erase” the marks with their irons, FWIW.

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36 minutes ago, Æthelthryth the Texan said:

You have no idea how excited I am for you to be my dd's chemistry teacher. I love this! 

Yay! 🙂  Chemistry - it's just so darn interesting. 😄

Now I'm also excited to play around with the ink this winter.  The article I linked above says the bottom end for the ink temp colour-change is -20C.  It definitely gets colder than that here.   Now the kinetics of the reaction have me all curious - will the change happen quickly? Take time? How much time? More time if it's even colder, like on our -40C days? Is it a second order reaction since the colour change is due to both an uncoupling of the colour-developer molecule and a coupling of that molecule with the temp-regulating molecule? Which step is the rate limiting step?

WOO HOO!!! CHEMISTRY!!!!!!!! 😍

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2 minutes ago, Dicentra said:

Yay! 🙂  Chemistry - it's just so darn interesting. 😄

Now I'm also excited to play around with the ink this winter.  The article I linked above says the bottom end for the ink temp colour-change is -20C.  It definitely gets colder than that here.   Now the kinetics of the reaction have me all curious - will the change happen quickly? Take time? How much time? More time if it's even colder, like on our -40C days? Is it a second order reaction since the colour change is due to both an uncoupling of the colour-developer molecule and a coupling of that molecule with the temp-regulating molecule? Which step is the rate limiting step?

WOO HOO!!! CHEMISTRY!!!!!!!! 😍

 

Chemistry was my favorite science in HS.

 

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1 hour ago, Dicentra said:

Yay! 🙂  Chemistry - it's just so darn interesting. 😄

Now I'm also excited to play around with the ink this winter.  The article I linked above says the bottom end for the ink temp colour-change is -20C.  It definitely gets colder than that here.   Now the kinetics of the reaction have me all curious - will the change happen quickly? Take time? How much time? More time if it's even colder, like on our -40C days? Is it a second order reaction since the colour change is due to both an uncoupling of the colour-developer molecule and a coupling of that molecule with the temp-regulating molecule? Which step is the rate limiting step?

WOO HOO!!! CHEMISTRY!!!!!!!! 😍

Wait - incorrect thinking regarding reaction order...  Bad, Connie!  Can't know order by inspection.  But termolecular.  Maybe?  Temp will affect activation energy, regardless.  Rate limiting step - bimolecular? Unimolecular? Concentration not a factor?  Is ink/developer bond broken at 65C through increased bond vibration only?  Wouldn't make sense going the other way, though.  All three molecules enclosed in a microcapsule.  Fixed ratios?  Conc not a factor at all?  So much to think about!!!!!

⬆️ My thought process while making dinner.  This may consume me for the rest of the evening... ⚗️🌡️🤔

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This is so funny.  So as a mom trying to juggle homeschooling a middle school-aged kid, negotiate perimenopausal memory fog, and teach at a university full time, things can get a little wild, and my teaching and research assistants sometimes think I have lost it.  Last semester they came to tell me that I wrote feedback all over one of their papers “with a pen that was out of ink.”  I admitted that i had written the feedback in the middle of the night (and i do have a vision issue), but I was sure I was not capable of writing without seeing the ink.  We reconstructed my feedback from the impressions on the paper. Mystery solved, chemistry nerds!  The student is a double major in physics and chemistry. She is going to love this, ladies!

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