11 Facts You Should Know about Halloween

11 Facts You Should Know about Halloween The U.S. is a society of consumers, and an economy based primarily on consumer spending, so its no surprise that Halloween is celebrated in  consumerist ways. Lets take a look at some interesting facts about Halloween consumption, with data from  National Retail Federations Halloween Headquarters, and consider what they mean from a sociological perspective. 171 million Americans- more than half the entire national population- will celebrate Halloween in 2016.Halloween is the nations third favorite holiday, but second favorite for those between the ages of 18-34. It is  less popular with older folks, and more popular among women than men,   according to a 2011 Harris Interactive poll.Not just for kids,  Halloween is an important holiday for adults too. Nearly half the adult population will dress in costume for the occasion.Total U.S. spending for Halloween 2016 is expected to reach 8.4 billion dollarsan increase of more than 3 billion dollars since 2007. That includes $3.1 billion spent on costumes, $2.5 billion on candy, and  $2.4 billion on decorations.The average person will spend about $83 celebrating Halloween.About a third of all adults will throw or attend a Halloween party.One in five adults will visit a haunted house.Sixteen percent will dress their pets in costume.In 2016 costume choices among adults differ by age brack et. Among Millennials, Batman characters take the number one spot, followed by witch, animal, Marvel or DC superhero, and vampire. The number one costume among older adults is a witch, followed by pirate, political costume, vampire, and then Batman character. Action and superhero characters are the top choice for children in 2016, followed by princess, animal, Batman character, and Star Wars character.Pumpkin wins the top spot for pets, followed by hot dog, bumble bee, lion, Star Wars character, and devil. So, what does all this mean, sociologically speaking? Halloween is clearly a very important holiday in the U.S. We can see this in not only the patterns in participation and spending  but in what people do to celebrate the holiday. Early sociologist Émile Durkheim observed that rituals are occasions upon which people in a culture or society come together to reaffirm their values, beliefs, and morals. By participating in rituals together, we activate and reaffirm our collective consciencethe sum of those beliefs and ideas we share in common,  that take on a life and force of their own due to their collective nature. In celebration of Halloween, those rituals include dressing in costume, trick-or-treating, throwing and attending costume parties, decorating homes,  and going to haunted houses. This raises the question of what values, beliefs, and morals are reaffirmed through our mass participation in these rituals. Halloween costumes in the U.S. have evolved away from the holidays social origins as taunts and mocking of death, and toward popular culture. Sure, witch is a popular costume for women, and zombies and vampires are also in the top ten, but the variations of them trend more toward sexy than scary or evocative of death. So, it would be false to conclude that the rituals affirm values and beliefs of Christianity and Paganism. They point instead to  the importance placed on having fun and being  sexy in our society. But, what also stands out to this sociologist is the consumerist nature of the holiday and the rituals. The primary thing we do to celebrate Halloween is buy stuff. Yes, we go out and get together and have fun, but none of that happens without first shopping and spending moneya collective 8.4 billion dollars. Halloween, like other consumerist holidays (Christmas, Valentines Day, Easter, Fathers Day and Mothers Day), is an occasion upon which we reaffirm the importance of consuming in order to fit in with the norms of society. Thinking back to Mikhail Bakhtins description of medieval carnivale in Europe as a release valve for the tensions that arise in a highly stratified society, we could also surmise that Halloween serves a similar function in the U.S. today. Currently economic inequality and poverty are at their greatest in the nations history. We are faced with an incessant onslaught of terrible news about global climate change, war, violence, discrimination and injustice,  and disease. In the midst of this, Halloween presents an attractive opportunity to take off our own identity, put on another, shake off our cares and concerns, and exist as someone else for an evening or two. Ironically, we may be further exacerbating the problems we face in the process, by perpetuating the hypersexualization of women and racism via costume, and  by handing our hard-earned money over to already wealthy corporations that exploit laborers and the environment to bring all the Halloween goods to us. But we sure have fun doing it.

The final product Essay Example

The final product Essay Example The final product Paper The final product Paper Abstract: In this experiment three Werner complexes, hexaamminecobalt(III) chloride, pentaamminechlorocobalt(III) chloride and hexaamminenickel(II) chloride were synthesized so their structural formula could be examined through magnetic susceptibility, electronic conductance measurements and the analysis of free chloride in the two cobalt complexes through titrations of silver nitrate. Cobalt (III) coordination compounds usually only form in low spin, octahedral complexes where the all t2g are paired leaving all the eg unpaired; whereas nickel(II) complexes are usually formed in the high spin state1. Through these analytical methods, it was found that: hexaamminecobalt(III) chloride has three free chloride ions to form the complex [Co(NH3)6]Cl3, in the low-spin state. Pentaamminechlorocobalt(III) chloride and hexaamminenickel(II) chloride both have two free chlorine ions to form the complexes [Co(NH3)5Cl]Cl2 and [Ni(NH3)6]Cl2 respectively. As expected, pentaamminechlorocobalt(III) chloride has a low spin electron arrangement, and hexaamminenickel(II) chloride is in a high spin state. Introduction: Alfred Werner was the first to discover the structure for coordination compound in 1893, thus they were given the name Werner Complexes. For this research he was given the Nobel Prize in 1913. Werner complexes are complex ions that contain a transition metal in the center, which is surrounded by anionic or neutral ligands. 2 The metal in this case acts as a Lewis acid (electron pair accepting) and the anionic ligands act as a Lewis base (electron pair donating). Using pentaamminechlorocobalt(III) chloride, Co(NH3)3Cl3, as an example, there are four possible structures depending on how the ligands are arranged. [Co(NH3)3Cl3] + 3NH3 In this case, all the chlorine anions are bound directly to the cobalt metal, and three neutral amine molecules are present somewhere else in the crystal lattice [Co(NH3)4Cl2]+ + Cl- + 2NH3 Here, two chlorines are directly bound to the cobalt metal with two neutral non boding amine molecules. There is also one free chlorine anion to balance the charge of the cobalt complex. [Co(NH3)5Cl]2+ + 2Cl- + NH3 The third possible arrangement is where there is one chlorine attached to the central cobalt with a single amine molecule elsewhere in the lattice. Again, there are two free chloride ions to balance the charge [Co(NH3)5]3+ + 3Cl- Finally, the cobalt complex can be arranged with just the amine ligands directly bound to it in a square pyramidal geometry instead of a more stable octahedral geometry seen in the other three complexes. This leaves the three chlorine anions non-bonded, and counterbalancing the 3+ charge from the complex. To find the actual arrangement and geometry of the three complexes, conductance measurements, magnetic susceptibility and free chloride ions through titrations can be measured and analyzed. Electronic conductance measurements helps determine the amount of chloride ions not attached to the metal. This is possible because when dissolving a salt in water, the molecule separates into cations and anions, each which can conduct electricity. The conductance measured can be compared to a literature reference of how many total ions correspond to the value. With this, logically dividing the charges between the cations and anions present will help determine the overall structure of the molecule. The second technique for determining the amount of ions present in a Werner complex is magnetic susceptibility. With finding the magnetic susceptibility using a magnetic susceptibility of a compound, one can calculate whether the compound is paramagnetic or diamagnetic. If the mass magnetic susceptibility, ? g, is negative, then the compound is diamagnetic; however, if ? g is positive, then the compound is paramagnetic. The apparatus used for this experiment is a Evans/Johnson Mathey Magnetic Susceptibility Balance. The last technique used was titrating a sample with silver nitrate. Since the three samples contain chloride ions, titrating it with silver nitrate would precipitate silver chloride, which is very insoluble. Based on the volume of silver nitrate used to reach the end point, one can calculate the amount of silver chloride precipitated. The amount of silver chloride precipitated is also the amount of free chloride ions in the mixture. Comparing the ratio of moles of silver nitrate used to the moles of analyte in the mixture will show the amount of non-bonding chlorine present. Procedure and observations: Synthesis of hexaamminecobalt(III) chloride: The synthesis was started by adding cobalt(II) chloride hexahydrate(4. 690g) and ammonium chloride (2.946g) to water(5mL) which formed a purple solution from the original red/pink powder. This solution was heated up and turned dark blue once it was all dissolved. Activating charcoal was then added as a catalyst the solution was then black with a slight blue tint. Afterwards, concentrated ammonia (9. 8mL) was added to the mixture. This created a very dark red solution, but upon setting, the color eventually faded to yellow with a bit of red in it. With this, the solution was then cooled in a tab water bath and hydrogen peroxide (10. 0mL, 6%) was added and heated to 65 degrees Celsius for 17 minutes. To crystallize, the solution was then places in another tap water bath, proceeded by an ice water bath. The brown crystals were then filtered by vacuum filtration and transferred to another beaker containing concentrated hydrochloric acid (2. 1mL) and water (41. 0mL). After all the crystals were dissolved, they were filtered by gravity filtration and washed with water (1. 7mL). The red/gold filtrate was collected, and another portion of concentrated hydrochloric acid(5. 2mL) was added. The filtrate was then cooled on ice to crystallize once more. Upon cooling, the solution turned bright orange. The sides of the erlenmeyer flask had to be scratched vigorously to help induce the production of crystals. Finally, the crystals were filtered once more by vacuum filtration, and dried between two pieces of large filter paper. The final product were bright orange crystals(0. 123g) at a 2. 36% yield. Synthesis of pentaamminechlorocobalt(III) chloride: To start the synthesis, solid ammonium chloride (7. 560g) was added to a beaker containing ammonia (44. 6mL, 14M). While stirring, finely powdered cobalt(II) chloride hexahydrate (7. 465g) was slowly added.

Kant, Hegel, and Nietzsche Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Kant, Hegel, and Nietzsche - Essay Example Georg Wilhem Friedrich Hegel in his philosophy of world history expounds on the different types of history. The first is original history, which refers to the written historical account of the period in question (Hegel, Wood & Nisbet 1991). Reflective history is the second type, which is written after a certain period, based on the reflective thought and is laden with interpretation. Lastly, there is philosophic history, which tries to rationally interpret history. Through philosophic history, Hegel observes that world history is not guided by God’s plan rather it is through a rational process (Hegel, Wood & Nisbet, 1991). He expounds this in his Reason rules of history, which states that reason rules the world. Hegel’s philosophical history is based on that assumption; reason rules the world. Friedrich Nietzsche in his philosophy of history tries to explain, â€Å"how things become what they are†. His concern with history arises with its recording and emphasis by people who claim to represent the past. He opposes Hegel’s method of systemizing history and his adoption of teological themes (Mencken, 1993). In his opinion, history should be wholesome for future generations and its sole purpose is to influence the next generations. This purpose is not a choice rather it is a demand. Nietzsche is of the opinion that â€Å"the capacity to build a new future depends on our ability to see a fundamental continuity with the strengths of the past†. Kant’s moral theory states that freedom is not defined by the absence of law but being bound to laws one makes for himself (Höffe, 1994). His moral theory further states that rational human wills have freedom, that is they are autonomous. Freedom, according to Kant is autonomy where individuals lay their own laws that guide their actions. His view on individual freedom as being autonomous is derived from the