How’s your plastics knowledge? Know your fluorides from your azides? Well today’s GCSE science students are required to learn about the complex chemistry of plastics. I was impressed. I mention this because today Middlesonmouse recanted the following exam question on this subject. “Polytetrafluoroethylene is a fluorocarbon solid. Its properties are a/ it is stable at high temperatures and b/ it is very slippery. Select its use from the following 4 options, 1) fridge door, 2) shoe laces, 3) coating for a non-stick frying pan, and 4) brassieres.” OK1, 2 and 4 are fictitious but anyone with the IQ of a twig and no knowledge of plastics what so ever will have a pretty safe bet with 3. And probably a GCSE in science. Apparently there are four GCSE examining bodies, each setting exams and vying for schools to use them, and the schools are vying for good exam results. Even said twig could figure out the examining body with the easiest questions will be the most successful. It’s win win win all the way, and comforting for parents to know their children are striding to ever greater knowledgeable success. Other interesting facts about PTFE. PTFE was accidentally invented by Roy Plunkett in New Jersey in 1938. In 1954, French engineer Marc Grégoire created the first pan coated with Teflon after his wife urged him to try it on her cooking pans. Kansas City resident Marion A. Trozzolo marketed the first US Teflon coated frying pan called "The Happy Pan," in 1961. The Manhattan Project used it to coat valves and seals in the pipes holding highly reactive uranium at the enrichment plant at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. PTFE is also the only known surface to which a gecko cannot stick.
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