Talk:Misnomer/Archives/2011/November

Dispute of criteria on naming: freeway

I removed the example

• Dispute of criteria on naming. For instance, freeways are generally divided highways with no at-grade intersections or private access, and expressways have no private access but select crossroads. However, two-lane freeway often refers to 2-lane roads without private access that sometimes have at-grade intersections.

This example is highly problematic. 1. both freeway links redirect to articles that don't have "freeway" in their names. 2. The term freeway refers to a limited access road accessed without toll, i.e. free. What would be a misnomer would be using the word freeway for a toll road. Therefore, if "Dispute on criteria on naming" is to be used, a better example should be provided, or if this example is to be used, it needs to be explained differently, explaining the dispute over what it is to be a freeway in the first place. —Anomalocaris (talk) 10:53, 13 November 2011 (UTC)

Sodium bicarbonate

Sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3 or baking soda) is a misnomer in that the 'bi' seems to suggest that there are two of something in the chemical formula which as you can see from the formula is untrue. From a quick reading around the web it seems that it was called 'bi'carbonate because in reactions it will produce twice as much carbon dioxide per unit of sodium as did another compound that was called Sodium carbonate (Na2CO3 or washing soda) and may have been named at a time when it wasn't possible to work out the chemical formula. It seems the name was kept even though we now know the true formula doesn't contain two carbonates. Infact the modern names of Sodium bicarbonate and Sodium carbonate are Sodium hydrogen carbonate and Disodium carbonate. There are already articles on both of these compounds and neither describes the reasoning behind the names. So I don't know if there should be a mention of it here or in those two articles or perhaps it is already out there in an article on chemical naming but I couldn't find it. bluetetrahedron (talk) 20:19, 31 March 2011 (UTC)

Sorry, this is wrong. The prefix bi means "hydrogen" in cases such as bicarbonate, bisulfite, bisulfate, and bisulfide. —Anomalocaris (talk) 11:05, 13 November 2011 (UTC)