Pfft. Looxury. My chemistry teacher cleared out the entire building every year with the the sugar vs. sulfuric acid experiment AND she set the lawn on fire by throwing pure sodium into a tub of water.

Halcyon. I has it.

CrotchBeard:

AND she set the lawn on fire by throwing pure sodium into a tub of water



/ csb: junior high chemistry teacher did the sodium v. water thing INDOORS ... blew large hole through the false ceiling in the classroom
// used a smaller piece she did next time

Way to go, Walt...

Thats not fire, it's invisible bees!

This was par for the course in my high school chemistry class. 'You guys did a good job. Now lets do something fun!'

fun = dangerous

PsychoLaurie: Way to go, Walt...



What the fark is your problem?

Egoy3k: fun = dangerous

Seriously, this. Who does not get this concept?

make me some tea: veedeevadeevoodee: CrotchBeard:

AND she set the lawn on fire by throwing pure sodium into a tub of water

[www.popsci.com image 525x464]

/ csb: junior high chemistry teacher did the sodium v. water thing INDOORS ... blew large hole through the false ceiling in the classroom
// used a smaller piece she did next time

We did the sodium metal and water thing but we did it out in the field, and just with a small piece of it. Explosion went up about 20' as I recall. Pretty cool.

I remember some of my classmates wanted to figure out how to smuggle the rest of the sodium metal out of there and go toss it in the lake. I was thinking the HCl byproduct in the water probably wouldn't be good. Thankfully they were never able to manage that one.

Video of sodium in a pond.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTcgo46nxNE

CrotchBeard: Pfft. Looxury. My chemistry teacher cleared out the entire building every year with the the sugar vs. sulfuric acid experiment AND she set the lawn on fire by throwing pure sodium into a tub of water.

Halcyon. I has it.

One of my high school chem teachers claimed that he'd taken a block of sodium from the chem labs at UCSB and threw it off the end of the Santa Barbara pier.

He said he had to run before the cops got there.

Another one (who liked to use his hand as a funnel for mercury) once made some compound that would "explode" (really pop vigorously) when brushed even lightly by a peacock feather. He then covered all the lab benches in it. I'm sure that the janitorial staff was real happy with him.

make me some tea: veedeevadeevoodee: CrotchBeard:

AND she set the lawn on fire by throwing pure sodium into a tub of water

[www.popsci.com image 525x464]

/ csb: junior high chemistry teacher did the sodium v. water thing INDOORS ... blew large hole through the false ceiling in the classroom
// used a smaller piece she did next time

We did the sodium metal and water thing but we did it out in the field, and just with a small piece of it. Explosion went up about 20' as I recall. Pretty cool.

I remember some of my classmates wanted to figure out how to smuggle the rest of the sodium metal out of there and go toss it in the lake. I was thinking the HCl byproduct in the water probably wouldn't be good. Thankfully they were never able to manage that one.

Maybe the experiment would have taught you that there is no chlorine in sodium or in water. An important thing to learn in chemistry is that "each product has to come from somewhere" and "each reactant has to go somewhere". That is, conservation of mass and equation-balancing. The byproduct of "sodium plus water" certainly could affect the lake-water and alter its pH slightly, but...

FTA: "It is not clear if the students suffered chemical burns or were burned by fire."

Um, I'm guessing FIRE. Methanol flames are almost invisible in daylight.

"Hold my pocket protector and watch this"!

Yeah, my chemistry teacher in high school was the same way. Between lycopodium powder tossed into random Bunsens, the "fire tornado" trick with a bit of door screen, a turntable, and alcohol, and the time we hand-rolled some thermite to burn through a series of coffee cans, it's a wonder we didn't burn down the school while I was there.

We also did the "grain bin explosion" simulator with a candle, some flour, and a length of rubber hose under a coffee can. Oh, and used potato guns to demonstrate angular velocity.

make me some tea: veedeevadeevoodee: CrotchBeard:

AND she set the lawn on fire by throwing pure sodium into a tub of water

[www.popsci.com image 525x464]

/ csb: junior high chemistry teacher did the sodium v. water thing INDOORS ... blew large hole through the false ceiling in the classroom
// used a smaller piece she did next time

We did the sodium metal and water thing but we did it out in the field, and just with a small piece of it. Explosion went up about 20' as I recall. Pretty cool.

I remember some of my classmates wanted to figure out how to smuggle the rest of the sodium metal out of there and go toss it in the lake. I was thinking the HCl byproduct in the water probably wouldn't be good. Thankfully they were never able to manage that one.


When my Chemistry teacher started teaching in my high school he did an inventory of the lab and found, beneath the sink, an amount of sodium metal the size of a brick wrapped in paper towels. So, being the responsible citizen he is, he took the brick, drove to the bridge, and heaved it over into the river.

had to make sure it wasnt my old chem teacher.

the only reason i can remember the cycles of a four strok engine (intake, compression, power, exhaust) are because he taught it as "suck, squeeze, blow, go"

/csb

make me some tea: veedeevadeevoodee: CrotchBeard:

AND she set the lawn on fire by throwing pure sodium into a tub of water

[www.popsci.com image 525x464]

/ csb: junior high chemistry teacher did the sodium v. water thing INDOORS ... blew large hole through the false ceiling in the classroom
// used a smaller piece she did next time

We did the sodium metal and water thing but we did it out in the field, and just with a small piece of it. Explosion went up about 20' as I recall. Pretty cool.

I remember some of my classmates wanted to figure out how to smuggle the rest of the sodium metal out of there and go toss it in the lake. I was thinking the HCl byproduct in the water probably wouldn't be good. Thankfully they were never able to manage that one.

Not a good idea. Apparently in the real world, it might not all react, leaving it as a dangerous timebomb:

http://tech.mit.edu/V127/N37/sodiumdrop.html

My chemistry teacher showed a demonstration with sodium one year, and a student got it in his head that he'd steal a piece. So he got a small chunk, and stuck it in his pocket for later.

In the middle of class, he leaped out of his chair as the sodium burned through his pant pocket and on to the floor.

There's a reason sodium's stored in oil.

"He just took a jug of menthol and dropped a match in there. That's like the last I know," he said.

The teacher should have taught his students the difference between methanol and menthol, too.

I guess the result supposed to be that the match would go out when it plunged into methanol, but it lit the vapor before it hit the surface?

Prof. Frink: make me some tea: veedeevadeevoodee: CrotchBeard:

AND she set the lawn on fire by throwing pure sodium into a tub of water

[www.popsci.com image 525x464]

/ csb: junior high chemistry teacher did the sodium v. water thing INDOORS ... blew large hole through the false ceiling in the classroom
// used a smaller piece she did next time

We did the sodium metal and water thing but we did it out in the field, and just with a small piece of it. Explosion went up about 20' as I recall. Pretty cool.

I remember some of my classmates wanted to figure out how to smuggle the rest of the sodium metal out of there and go toss it in the lake. I was thinking the HCl byproduct in the water probably wouldn't be good. Thankfully they were never able to manage that one.

Maybe the experiment would have taught you that there is no chlorine in sodium or in water. An important thing to learn in chemistry is that "each product has to come from somewhere" and "each reactant has to go somewhere". That is, conservation of mass and equation-balancing. The byproduct of "sodium plus water" certainly could affect the lake-water and alter its pH slightly, but...

Maybe a salt lake?

Lecturer for my freshman chemistry course in undergrad had a unique method for keeping people from dozing off during her lectures: carboys full of hydrogen. Oh, the humanity...

Gather around kids, let show ya somethin

Skyrmion: "He just took a jug of menthol and dropped a match in there. That's like the last I know," he said.

The teacher should have taught his students the difference between methanol and menthol, too.

I'm guessing this is a transcription error, not what the kid actually said.

Skyrmion: "He just took a jug of menthol and dropped a match in there. That's like the last I know," he said.

The teacher should have taught his students the difference between methanol and menthol, too.

I guess the result supposed to be that the match would go out when it plunged into methanol, but it lit the vapor before it hit the surface?


If you drop a match in methanol, it WILL ignite - provided that there is sufficient oxygen present..

He probably (stupidly) figured that the space above the liquid in the jug would be filled with pure vaporized methanol, with insufficient oxygen to create a fire/ explosion inside the container. He likely expected a small fire to spout from the mouth of the jug - "oooh - ahhh", and that would be it.

Apparently there was plenty of oxygen in the jug - initiating a flash-fire / explosion.

Oops.

Skyrmion: "He just took a jug of menthol and dropped a match in there. That's like the last I know," he said.

The teacher should have taught his students the difference between methanol and menthol, too.


Methanol = cool. Menthol = Kool.

Amos Quito: Skyrmion: "He just took a jug of menthol and dropped a match in there. That's like the last I know," he said.

The teacher should have taught his students the difference between methanol and menthol, too.


Methanol = cool. Menthol = Kool.

golf clap

FLAMOLA!!!

/obscure?

mavexe: make me some tea: veedeevadeevoodee: CrotchBeard:

AND she set the lawn on fire by throwing pure sodium into a tub of water

[www.popsci.com image 525x464]

/ csb: junior high chemistry teacher did the sodium v. water thing INDOORS ... blew large hole through the false ceiling in the classroom
// used a smaller piece she did next time

We did the sodium metal and water thing but we did it out in the field, and just with a small piece of it. Explosion went up about 20' as I recall. Pretty cool.

I remember some of my classmates wanted to figure out how to smuggle the rest of the sodium metal out of there and go toss it in the lake. I was thinking the HCl byproduct in the water probably wouldn't be good. Thankfully they were never able to manage that one.

Video of sodium in a pond.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTcgo46nxNE

"yeah yeah, whatever, kind of boring...BOOOOM!"

/dangerous=fun

Amos Quito: Skyrmion: "He just took a jug of menthol and dropped a match in there. That's like the last I know," he said.

The teacher should have taught his students the difference between methanol and menthol, too.

I guess the result supposed to be that the match would go out when it plunged into methanol, but it lit the vapor before it hit the surface?


If you drop a match in methanol, it WILL ignite - provided that there is sufficient oxygen present..

He probably (stupidly) figured that the space above the liquid in the jug would be filled with pure vaporized methanol, with insufficient oxygen to create a fire/ explosion inside the container. He likely expected a small fire to spout from the mouth of the jug - "oooh - ahhh", and that would be it.

Apparently there was plenty of oxygen in the jug - initiating a flash-fire / explosion.

Oops.

I'm too lazy to track it down, but there are several Youtube videos of exactly this..including one where the entire glass carboy is shattered.

Several posters have mentioned lycopodium powder dust explosions. We use that is our annual "flaming pumpkin" demonstration at Halloween, although we're thinking about taking it up a notch next year. There's a nice "self-carving jack o'lantern" that can be done with calcium carbide...

Like the t-shirt says, "Stand back, I'm going to try science."

Just another excuse to put asinine restrictions in place to "protect the children."

Fine concept, poor execution. The judges will not be impressed with that one.

What was the one with potassium and iodine that made some sort of contact explosive? I remember my Chem teacher making that one to prank people.

HS science teacher myself here and part of a team that drafts safety resources for Canadian teachers.

The stupid in this experiment is mind boggling. From just the article I can name about 10 things he did wrong that are unforgivable in a supposed professional. Normally I stand up for my fellow teachers but get this twit out of a classroom before he kills someone.

Gerald Tarrant: HS science teacher myself here and part of a team that drafts safety resources for Canadian teachers.

The stupid in this experiment is mind boggling. From just the article I can name about 10 things he did wrong that are unforgivable in a supposed professional. Normally I stand up for my fellow teachers but get this twit out of a classroom before he kills someone.

Death is a powerful motivator for learning.

mantafirefly: Fine concept, poor execution. The judges will not be impressed with that one.

How is that a fine concept? Using enough methanol to burn 3 kids is more than just poor execution.
Flamable liquids and glass don't go well together either. Chemicals, kids and no PPE also don't add up to a fine concept. There are many safe ways to set stuff on fire, clearly this guy has never heard of them.

We burned a kids arm by pouring all the acids we could find under the fume hood into the waste bin. Conc H2SO4 into a mostly dilute HCl and HNO3 mix produces yellow clouds fast enough that the fume hood couldn't suck it all out. The teacher felt like an idiot for not realizing the acids were not secured. He never tried to burn us, though he did carefully burn flour, hydrogen and probably other stuff.

I think he was trying to do a demo that I've done a dozen times. You pour about 50 mL methanol (spike with a little sodium borate if you want a cool green flame effect) in a 5 gallon water jug, swirl it around in the flask for about a minute, then pour out the liquid, flip the jug and pass a flame just above it's opening. You get a woosh of flame, and then little bursts as all the vapor combusts.

Check out a video hereLink (new window) (go to near the end for flame, or just watch the dancing first).

At my school, it was glycerin and potassium permanganate (or manganese, I can never remember). The chem teacher added set down just a little too much of one of them, causing a pillar of flame to blaze up to the ceiling and set some drop tiles on fire.

Luckily, fire extinguishers were in place at every workstation. Four separate kids grabbed them and had the fire out in a jiffy.

Later on, a kid who had seen the demonstration tried it on his own but at a much larger scale (the potassium compound is sold in 20lb bags as pool supplies, and you can get glycerin at any craft store for making soap). Legend has it that the resulting fire was reported by a passing airline pilot.

Ajanu: mantafirefly: Fine concept, poor execution. The judges will not be impressed with that one.

How is that a fine concept? Using enough methanol to burn 3 kids is more than just poor execution.
Flamable liquids and glass don't go well together either. Chemicals, kids and no PPE also don't add up to a fine concept. There are many safe ways to set stuff on fire, clearly this guy has never heard of them.

Methanol's explosive limits are officially 6-36%, but normally the volume involved wouldn't be enough to be really dangerous. The problem is not with the glass at all, the problems are:

(definite problem) lighting a fluid in a necked bottle (a storage jug) - confinement is a good way to fark yourself with any ignitable mixture.

(probably a problem) using a half-empty bottle. This gives a larger explosive-capable volume, so less "pop" and more "boom". Again, you kind of have it backward, the issue was most likely too little fluid in the bottle, not too much, it's the vapor section that's explosive.

If she used a beaker or a wide-necked flask like a sane person this would have been perfectly fine and entertaining instead of an impromptu pipe bomb. Anyone who's used lighter fluid has done the same thing with no problems (unless, I guess, they filled half a wine bottle with lighter fluid and dropped a match in).

tillerman35:
Later on, a kid who had seen the demonstration tried it on his own but at a much larger scale (the potassium compound is sold in 20lb bags as pool supplies, and you can get glycerin at any craft store for making soap). Legend has it that the resulting fire was reported by a passing airline pilot.

Could be worse, that mix is just self-oxidizing enough to light on fire randomly. If your teacher had had the combination of poor judgement and balls to demonstrate a nitration instead it could have potentially produced a high explosive.

//Had a dramatically irresponsible chemistry teacher back in high school, before we really understood the chemistry behind the labs beyond "this goes boom".

Gerald Tarrant: HS science teacher myself here and part of a team that drafts safety resources for Canadian teachers.

The stupid in this experiment is mind boggling. From just the article I can name about 10 things he did wrong that are unforgivable in a supposed professional. Normally I stand up for my fellow teachers but get this twit out of a classroom before he kills someone.


Actually I think it was a powerful lesson - in Darwinian theory.

Egoy3k: This was par for the course in my high school chemistry class. 'You guys did a good job. Now lets do something fun!'

fun = dangerous

Exactly. It was an accident which 99+% of the time goes off without a hitch as a welcome reward.

What's next, subby? Let's get rid of stairs so the snowflakes won't hurt themselves there?

Skyrmion: "He just took a jug of menthol and dropped a match in there. That's like the last I know," he said.

The teacher should have taught his students the difference between methanol and menthol, too.

I guess the result supposed to be that the match would go out when it plunged into methanol, but it lit the vapor before it hit the surface?

The article said methanol at one point and menthol at another, and left me wondering if maybe the real problem was methane.

//All those "m" chemicals, so confusing...

Jim_Callahan: Ajanu: mantafirefly: Fine concept, poor execution. The judges will not be impressed with that one.

How is that a fine concept? Using enough methanol to burn 3 kids is more than just poor execution.
Flamable liquids and glass don't go well together either. Chemicals, kids and no PPE also don't add up to a fine concept. There are many safe ways to set stuff on fire, clearly this guy has never heard of them.

Methanol's explosive limits are officially 6-36%, but normally the volume involved wouldn't be enough to be really dangerous. The problem is not with the glass at all, the problems are:

(definite problem) lighting a fluid in a necked bottle (a storage jug) - confinement is a good way to fark yourself with any ignitable mixture.

(probably a problem) using a half-empty bottle. This gives a larger explosive-capable volume, so less "pop" and more "boom". Again, you kind of have it backward, the issue was most likely too little fluid in the bottle, not too much, it's the vapor section that's explosive.

If she used a beaker or a wide-necked flask like a sane person this would have been perfectly fine and entertaining instead of an impromptu pipe bomb. Anyone who's used lighter fluid has done the same thing with no problems (unless, I guess, they filled half a wine bottle with lighter fluid and dropped a match in).

I agree with what your saying. My point is that even pyrex will break if heated or pressurized incorrectly, you can shatter a beaker fairly easily, especially if it is old like a lot of school equiptment is. At that point you have liquid at best running free on fire (well with flames above) and at worst liquid flying through the air, possibly still on fire. If this happens, and there is enough to burn a kids face, that's too much. The flamable limits never factored into my thought process. A jug is usually around 4L, which is way too much methanol to have in a clasroom with a flame regardless of what you plan to do with it.

Any science teacher who could not see the explosive potential of dropping a match into a jug needs to be taken away from all chemicals.

Egoy3k: This was par for the course in my high school chemistry class. 'You guys did a good job. Now lets do something fun!'

fun = dangerous

Isn't this how every good chemistry class is rewarded? We always expected a few highlights at the end of term, something wickedly dangerous

I'm amazed that once the fire was out, the student who got a face-full of the stuff wasn't suspended for possessing alcohol on campus.