pronunciation of chemical formulas

[GeneD]

How do you pronounce chemical formulas (H[SUB]2[/SUB]O, for example)?

 

[GeneD]

H-two-O?

 

[GeneD]

Thanks for the answer. Yes, it is a '2'. For some reason, the number isn't shown in its full size.

 

[emsr2d2]

Sub-script characters don't work on the forum. The bottom half, which should appear lower than the rest of the letters, for some reason becomes invisible.

 

[Rover_KE]

Yes – we have to accept H2O.

 

[Raymott]

H to O - water?

 

[GeneD]

Till the very moment I read Piscean's post I didn't know and even hear about cryptic crosswords. Having got intrigued by what Piscean encrypted in post 7, I googled and tried to solve a couple of encrypted words and must confess it's pretty mind-blowing!

Is it 'alpha', Piscean?

 

[GeneD]

No. As Ray suggested, it's (from) H to O. H to O sounds like H20, which is the chemical formula for water.

Got it. The one thing I can't understand in your puzzle is why there is the number '5' in the brackets? I thought it might have hint that we should use only 5 first letters in the word 'alphabet'. Now I don't have clues on how to explain it. :-?


[edit]
Water - 5 letters?

 

[GeneD]

This one should now be simple: A B C D E F G H I J K L M, minute (4).

I've no idea what it could be, frankly. 13 minutes? :-D

There should be 4 letters, right?
Hour?

 

[Rover_KE]

A crossword clue is always followed by a number in brackets. This tells you how many letters there are in the answer.

A two- or three-word answer will be shown by (4,5) or (3,5,6), for example.

 

[YAMATO2201]

A to M - atom?

 

[GeneD]

(gazing at Yamato in admiration) :up:

Why is there the word 'minute'? If it's 'my-newt', how to connect it to 'atom'? If it's not, how are 'minute' and 'atom' connected?

 

[GeneD]

I didn't know that meaning of 'minute' (and the different pronunciation, BTW, either). But even if I did, I think I wouldn't figure out what word that was by myself.

Thanks, Piscean. Really interesting game. And mysterious, too, to my novice's mind.