Experiment Hunting

[Theory5]

Homeland Severity, the EPA, Haz-Mat... Say "no."

http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/homesec.jpg

Jackbooted State compassion wll crush a society like a huge soft hand with bones of ancient stone pressing down until blood flows.

nice post uncle al :-)

What do you mean!
I made lots of interesting things when I was 12. Like gunpowder. I blew up the ant's nests with it (I hated ants) and made my own firecrackers.

I dont think many 12 year olds would realize how dangerous it is. And how did you know how to make gun powder at age 12? :-P


A good fun, pretty safe experiment would be to show how a vacuum works. You need one hardboiled egg, a few matches and a glass bottle (like a beer bottle). light the matches drop them into the bottle and (quickly) place the egg on top, the egg will be sucked into the bottle, thus demonstrating vacuum.

[Michaelangelica]

Originally Posted by Theory5

I dont think many 12 year olds would realize how dangerous it is. And how did you know how to make gun powder at age 12? :-P

i had abook (Boy's Own?) that had heaps of firecracker recipes. I think it might have been an old book.
Also, I used to play with dry ice from the Ice-Cream-Man/Van. Blowing corks out of bottles etc

Funny my 'first ever' science experiment was in a new post-Sputnik, government funded laboratory. The teacher boiled water in a can. Screwed the top on and we watched the atmosphere crush the can. The coolest thing i ever saw at school.

These days teachers are too scared to let kids take risks "duty of care" etc becomes stifling. Most interesting chemicals- that do things- are banned from schools.

My kid's first year of science was on the theory and practice of scientific experiments. They were bored stiff. The methodology of all this stuff i didn't tackle until uni. In fact most of my Psy. degree seemed to be taken up with it.

I was amazed when a doctor friend had to stop his Ph. D studies half way though because of his poor experimental design. (What was his supervisor doing?).
God knows how less trained doctors mange to read and evaluate the veracity of medical journal articles. Thank The Lord they have Drug Companies to tell them what to prescribe.

[Theory5]

i had abook (Boy's Own?) that had heaps of firecracker recipes.

Lucky :-P
Where did you live at the time? I live in MA so firecrackers are illegal.

These days teachers are too scared to let kids take risks "duty of care" etc becomes stifling. Most interesting chemicals- that do things- are banned from schools.

And if a teacher wants to get any sort of material that can be used as combustables are greatly restricted to teachers. I remember watching that material (I forget what its called I think its something that is usually not in solid form) burn in water. The teacher only had just enough to show it to all of her classes once. :-(

[Michaelangelica]

[quote]

Originally Posted by Theory5

Lucky :-P
Where did you live at the time? I live in MA so firecrackers are illegal.

N.S.W.
They are here too, now, that was 45 years ago!
In all our time we only lost one finger amongst ALL the kids in a very long street!
That included fights with 2d "double-bungers"-- monster explosive crackers that used to rip apart most letterboxes.
Yes we made pipe "guns" with a piece of 1/2" water pipe a bunger and a steel ball-bearing.
It is remarkable that we mostly survived uninjured.
About 30 years ago I had a grown up "Bonfire Night" party at my farm. The adults were lunatics ! One, a medical doctor, had to be taken to casualty. I never had another similar party.
Good to see young kids these days are much more sensible and only into sex and drugs.

And if a teacher wants to get any sort of material that can be used as combustables are greatly restricted to teachers. I remember watching that material (I forget what its called I think its something that is usually not in solid form) burn in water. The teacher only had just enough to show it to all of her classes once. :-(

Magnesium?

Magnesium powder is used in the manufacture of fireworks and marine flares where a brilliant white light is required

Magnesium - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Amazing what i can remember.

[freeztar]

It's sodium.

The reaction of sodium and water is a familiar one in chemistry labs, and is reasonably safe if amounts of sodium smaller than a pencil eraser are used and the reaction is done behind a plastic shield by people wearing eye protection. However, the sodium-water reaction does not scale up well, and is treacherous when larger amounts of sodium are used. Larger pieces of sodium melt under the heat of the reaction, and the molten ball of metal is buoyed up by hydrogen and may appear to be stably reacting with water, until splashing covers more of the reaction mass, causing thermal runaway and an explosion which scatters molten sodium, lye solution, and sometimes flame. (18.5 g explosion [1]) This behavior is unpredictable, and among the alkali metals it is usually sodium which invites this surprise phenomenon, because lithium is not reactive enough to do it, and potassium is so reactive that chemistry students are not tempted to try the reaction with larger potassium pieces.

Sodium is much more reactive than magnesium; a reactivity which can be further enhanced due to sodium's much lower melting point. When sodium catches fire in air (as opposed to just the hydrogen gas generated from water by means of its reaction with sodium) it more easily produces temperatures high enough to melt the sodium, exposing more of its surface to the air and spreading the fire.

Sodium - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Michaelangelica]

Originally Posted by freeztar

It's sodium.

Nah, not salt!

Al the chemists at Hypography will be glad to hear, that I have just purchased a large kid's poster of the periodic table.

Now, anyone got any old, kid's-chemistry-books and chemical-suppliers not bugged by the CIA?