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Poll: What’s the average age?
9 and lower --- 2 (0.7%)
10-19 --- 121 (42.61%)
20-29 --- 98 (34.51%)
30-39 --- 21 (7.39%)
40-49 --- 20 (7.04%)
50-59 --- 18 (6.34%)
60 and over if over specify --- 4 (1.41%)

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Author: Subject: What’s the average age?
quicksilver
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[*] posted on 9-4-2007 at 06:21


Quote:
Originally posted by Magpie
I am likely the resident geezer here at 62. I liked chemistry from an early age. One of the few Christmas gifts I ever asked for was a Gilbert chemistry set. I didn't take this hobby up again until I retired 2 years ago from a career in chemical engineering.

Getting supplies is more difficult now - requires more creativity and effort. But if you make some of your own you are bound to have more fun and learn more chemistry.


You do have a few years on me (I thought I was at least one of the oldest - I'm close) but I remember Gilbert's Chemistry Set. I have the one that folded out upon itself and I believe was made of thin sheet metal; all items stored within.
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12AX7
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[*] posted on 9-4-2007 at 07:30


Hmm, I have to change my vote, I've been 20 for a while. :o

Tim




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[*] posted on 9-4-2007 at 12:04


I'm 14 now but 15 in two months. I really should post more...

Regards,

Mike
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[*] posted on 9-4-2007 at 13:16


22 years here and approaching 23 soon...getting pretty old for a vulture. Maybe I should become an old wise owl, they're more pretty anyway. :D



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The_Davster
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[*] posted on 9-4-2007 at 13:28


I would think it would be interesting to start a new poll on this, to see how the demographic here has changed over time. Any objections?



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Magpie
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[*] posted on 9-4-2007 at 13:44


Vulture you are still just a "spring chicken." Please do not become an owl. You would lose your valuable talent of being able to detect carrion from miles away. But you would gain in the area of night vision. Hmm... :o



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Elawr
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[*] posted on 9-4-2007 at 16:33


Looking at the age distribution makes me feel REALLY OLD. I'm almost 51 -aaaagh!!!
We need more ancient members here so Iwon't feel so old!

...I just bumped the 50+ group to just over 9% with my vote!



[Edited on 9-4-2007 by Elawr]




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enhzflep
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[*] posted on 9-4-2007 at 17:04


Nearly 30.

Always loved chemistry from the first contact with it.

Got especially turned on to it when as a 12 or 13 year old, our science teacher chose me to be the one that dropped the lumps of sodium and potassium into a vat of water from the end of a 1m ruler.

Oh, and I guess the rockets we made in yr7 using soda bulbs hardly moderated my interest...:D
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MadHatter
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[*] posted on 10-4-2007 at 01:12
Approaching 50


I'm 48 soon to be 49. When I reach 50 I fully expect my friends to give me some of those
gag gifts related to age. Bastards !




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Mumbles
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[*] posted on 10-4-2007 at 16:55


I've also changed demographics since I voted. Hit the big 2-0 a few months ago(Don't tell the liquor store though;)). It'd be interesting to see how things have changed over time. I do find it interesting to see that 60% of the forum is between 10-30. I knew there were plenty of people in my age range there, but is a lot higher than I thought.

[Edited on 4-10-2007 by Mumbles]
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[*] posted on 11-4-2007 at 05:52


Quote:
Originally posted by The_Davster
I would think it would be interesting to start a new poll on this, to see how the demographic here has changed over time. Any objections?


I'd be interested in seeing the current demographic, but I don't think it will yield a meaningful comparison to the "old" since I just voted in -this- poll a few days ago and I doubt that I'm only one to have done so. If I had been around here to vote when the thread was started I'd have been in a lower age group.




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vulture
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[*] posted on 11-4-2007 at 08:06


A new poll would be more meaningful if the age boundaries were more narrow. Say 18-22, 22-26 and 26-30 for example.

Interesting how there is a gap in the age groups. Maybe because the babyboom generation has been growing up with chemophobia?

[Edited on 11-4-2007 by vulture]




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[*] posted on 11-4-2007 at 09:52


40 in less than a month, so I ticked the 40 box.



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Magpie
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[*] posted on 11-4-2007 at 10:18


Vulture says:
Quote:

Maybe because the babyboom generation has been growing up with chemophobia?


I have to take some exception to this. I was born in 1942. Technically, a pre-babyboomer I suppose, but close. I don't consider my generation chemophobic. I would think that the later generations "X" or "Y" would more fit this stereotype.

I want to quote the last paragraph in my freshman chemistry book: "The chemist and his colleagues in the other sciences are constantly facing new and exciting challenges. With the beginning of the space age, scientific horizons have been tremendously broadened. Once again we are willing to set out to achieve the 'impossible.' Even the sky is no longer the limit." This was published in 1961.

In my generation Dupont's proud slogan was "Better Living Through Chemistry." I also remember an ad for toothpaste proudly stating that it contained hexachlorophene. I don't think that would happen today. ;)




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MadHatter
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[*] posted on 11-4-2007 at 14:03
Chemophobia


This baby boomer grew up with little or no restrictions when it comes to chemistry. Even the
chemical suppliers were friendlier in the 70s. That can't be said by today's standards. I'm
sure the suppliers are somewhat less willing to provide budding chemists what they
need given the harassment they face from the DEA and the CPSC.




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[*] posted on 11-4-2007 at 18:54


I'm 54. My birthday is next monday. How am I supposed to feel? I made some meth before. I am not some bastard. I never was. I was addicted. The meth labs could be some of the more interesting labs, with a sort of Edgar Allen Poe feel to them, with a stuffed raven over the door, and skulls with candles in them. We have a duty to end war, which kills people, not to worry whether someone has given all geeks a bad name and made it harder for them to go about "perfecting ways of making sealing wax", or whatever it is you do with YOUR phosphorous, MadHatter. It's all good.
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[*] posted on 24-5-2007 at 01:15


20

Still young and happy about it ;)




tat tvam asi
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Ozone
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[*] posted on 24-5-2007 at 09:46


A spry 32. Ha.

Cheers,

O3




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[*] posted on 24-5-2007 at 11:35


i'm 30 and only start reading this forum... (i'm from Russia) verry happy to look that most of peoples there do not get crazy for drugs )). Sorry for my bad english....
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[*] posted on 27-5-2007 at 09:12


I am 70 - hence the handle.

First interested age 12 - father had a fine library that I read. I got one of those 'chemistry sets' ( don't knock them! I think they have started many a youngster off on the path).

In 1952 my father, also an enthusiast in his youth, created a chemical lab in a small room off my bedroom. It had a tiled bench, a fume cupboard ( no fan but sliding glass front, vented to outside). I could get almost any reagent you can name form the local druggist ('chemist' in UK, where I lived then. My father had to sign for those on the poison register, such as arsenic oxide, antinomy oxide, mercuric chloride, sodium cyanide(!), and a few others.

For about 5 years I lived and breathed chemistry (literally!) when I was not doing electronics. If I had that lab now I'd be in hog heaven! For college I opted for Electrical Eng. - electonics won out. I did consider doing another year to get a Chem Eng degree as well. Father died, we had yo move and the lab was lost - all I have now is a lovely old balance by Becker of NY, circa 1890, still works like a charm.

Son number one became intersted when he was about 16 and I went back to experimental chem with him. I had followed theoretical chem by reading all the time. That was 26 years ago. Then son #2 came along, and i began to try to get him interested seriously, but he suffered from pyrotechnomania and was not serious about real chem.

I retired over a decade ago and still dabble.

Regards, DerAlte
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[*] posted on 20-7-2007 at 06:08


It's always GOOD to have seniors and older aged guys. They much experience and are certainly a great deal of help here:D
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[*] posted on 6-5-2008 at 10:51


Just turned 18! Woo hoo!
The love afair with chemistry has been around for most of those 18.
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[*] posted on 6-5-2008 at 15:12


I forgot to post my actual age. 23. Will be 24 in a little over two months. I don't know why but I feel like I'm getting older too fast. Every year seems to pass faster than the year before it and I don't like thinking about the fact that I have already lived 1/3 of my expected lifespan. It's time to start living it up!

Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm young but it seems like just yesterday I was thinking "Damn. 20 just sounds old compared to Xteen."




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[*] posted on 6-5-2008 at 15:26


I feel you MJP, from the are of 18 to almost 20 it seems like the time just disappeared.

I've always enjoyed chemistry, but electronics and mechanical was where the brains went.
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[*] posted on 6-5-2008 at 22:56


I'm 42 and I have the impression that I really belong to a minority group over here, although I also think that the average age over here is higher than it is on most other forums.

@MJP: The feeling you express I also know, the effect becomes stronger and stronger every year. The past few years have gone soooo fast...




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