science

Simple Green

Simple Green is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Simple Green rather than just read about it. In short: Simple Green is an American brand of cleaning products produced by Sunshine Makers, Inc. Their best known product is Simple Green All-Purpose Cleaner, which totaled sales of at least US $5.7 million in 2004.

Key takeaways

Simple Green belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Simple Green to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Simple Green from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Simple Green is an American brand of cleaning products produced by Sunshine Makers, Inc. Their best known product is Simple Green All-Purpose Cleaner, which totaled sales of at least US $5.7 million in 2004. It is advertised as an environmentally friendly, non-toxic, and biodegradable cleaner. A prior formulation received critical attention from environmental safety activists because of the toxicity concerns of 2-butoxyethanol (EGBE), which was in the formula at under 4%. As of 2013, 2-butoxyethanol has been removed from Simple Green all-purpose cleaner, so now it has an NFPA/HMIS rating of 0/minimal for Health, Fire, Reactivity, and Special. Its main competitors are Lysol, Clorox, and Windex.

Environmental uses Simple Green has been re-listed as an approved Surface Washing Agent per the EPA's National Contingency Plan after being de-listed in 1995. The new 2013 re-formulation, SW-65 was re-listed with the EPA on 7/09/2013 EPA toxicity testing reports that Menidia beryllina and Mysidopsis bahia survive slightly better in a water solution of 1:10 mixture of Simple Green with crude oil#2 (LC50 = 8.30 ppm for 96 h and 4.40 ppm for 48 h) than in a water solution of crude oil #2 (LC50 = 6.50 ppm for 96 h and 3.70 ppm for 48 h). In 2001, Crystal Simple Green was used to clean up an oil spill in the Baltic Sea. In 2005, laboratory testing on rainbow trout indicated that Crystal Simple Green alone did not affect the survival of rainbow trout adults or fry. Crude oil #2 did not affect adults. but did increase the mortality rate of fry to 36%. Crystal Simple Green combined with crude oil #2 did not affect adults but did increase the mortality rate of fry to 46%. Simple Green has also been used for soil remediation projects.

Ingredients Simple Green lists the ingredients of their all-purpose cleaner as

The manufacturer's Ingredient Disclosure list for Simple Green® All-Purpose Cleaner includes methylchloroisothiazolinone and methylisothiazolinone.

References

External links Official website

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Simple Green

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Simple Green claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Simple Green before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Simple Green ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Simple Green

In research: Simple Green appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Simple Green in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Simple Green is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Cleaning products, Products introduced in 1979, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Simple Green outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Simple Green in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Simple Green means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Simple Green out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Simple Green in simple terms?

Why does Simple Green matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Simple Green?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Simple Green.