Interesting Discoveries
 

So I've had a number of interesting discoveries of things while studying the last few hundred joyo kanji. As such, I thought it would be good to have a thread dedicated solely to interesting little things we've noticed while studying. If someone were looking for a little inspiration to study that day, they could skim through this thread to get re-inspired. I know sometimes I get fatigued and just don't feel like studying a certain day.

So here is my inaugural contribution:

The difference between 油 and 脂 (both あぶら) in the kitchen is that 油 is the name given to oils/fats that are liquid at room temperature (olive oil, fish oil, etc.). 脂 is the name given to oils/fats that are solid at room temperature (butter, the fat on meats, etc.).

Source: http://www.mayu-c.net/shokuiku/2007/01/post_19.html

The way you distinguish a Kanji (which you should use in the cases) from another/others, would be often of help not only for Japanese learners but also for native Japanese.
Especially for an uneducated person like me. So please keep providing these kind of stuff that you think it to be efficient to learn the language (Kanjis).
By the way, which Kanji would you use for あぶら when you translate this English sentence into Japanese ? (I am pretty sure you are already aware of this, but this question may be of help for those who read this thread.)

Which one (fish) is the highest in fat ?
一番あぶらが乗っているのはどれですか？

Sorry for my poor English, I hope you could get what I am saying.

I think there you'd use 脂肪酸, which is "fatty acid." This includes polyunsaturated fat, monounsaturated fat, saturated fat, and trans fats.

For a less technical term, Eijiro on ALC seems to indicate 脂身（あぶらみ）: “fat”の検索結果（3775 件）：英辞郎 on the Web：スペースアルク
Or maybe 油脂, which is basically "oils and fats"?

Oh ! I am a bit embarrassed to see you go into the detail with such technical terms. You are so intelligent.
Yes, you use 脂 for あぶら in the sentence. 一番脂が乗っているのはどれですか？

and basically,
脂　for fats
油　for oils

I was not speaking of chemical terms but of daily use word(Kanji), since I thought someone who read this thread might be confused with "fish" and "fish oil".
But it seems to be apparent that I myself have been confused with "fats" and "oils". I apologize for bothering you.

I find this thread interesting, so I think I should join in as well. Pardon me if I make any mistakes :p So basically we use 脂 to talk about fats originated from animals because the left radical of 脂 is a variant of 肉 (meat), correct? In my Kanji book (written in Vietnamese, which is my mother language), they also use this kind of explanation for kanji with this radical. For example, they explained 散 like "the act of scattering meat" (not sure if I translated it correctly), so the verb 散る means "to scatter".

Regarding 脂 and 油, I'm amazed to see another similarity between Japanese and Vietnamese. We also use 2 different words when talking about fats and oil, and the distribution of which word to use is pretty much the same, at least with my current knowledge. :D