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My chemistry lesson for the day

  • Thread starter sarracenia
  • Start date
I work in a chemistry lab, Fri-Sat-Sun from 11 pm to 11 am.
Before I get to the lesson, I should caveat that on Sunday, I had a nasty stomach sickness, not sure why, but I only got about 2 hours of sleep in. Keep in mind this is after putting in 12 hrs Sat. night/Sun morning. Anyway, it was about 1050 am on Monday, so I had 10 minutes before I got off work. Rather than doing nothing, I decided to fill some repipetting jugs with their corresponding chemicals. I got to the potassium thiocyanate jug, started pouring.....KABLAM!! It was like the 4th of july. liquid shooting straight to the ceiling, a huge white cloud...etc... The lab was evacuated. Air tests confirmed the presence of cyanide gas, which makes sense, since potassium thiocyanate was one of the reactants. After the dust settled, so-to-speak, we found out that I had inadvertantly poured 30% hydrogen peroxide into the KSCN bottle. Being a strong oxider, it reacted violently, producing HCN, SO2 and who knows what else. Fortunately, no one got hurt from the incident. I finally got to go home at 1:15, truly exhausted and truly embarassed. The lesson: double check your labels when pouring from one container to another. Oh, and if you only get 2 hours of sleep prior to starting a 12 hour night shift, you might just want to consider calling in sick. I was going to, but changed my mind at the last minute.
 
I think there are a few forum members here who can identify with explosions.
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Lets see...Ozzy? Tamlin? Anyone else want to chime in?

Glad you are ok and there wasn't too much damage...except to your pride.
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I work in an environmental laboratory Monday -> Friday and Home Depot on Saturdays. Can't say I've blown anything up, but my jeans and shirts need frequesnt replacing due to much dropping of acid.
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I mean literal acid - Nitric, Hydrochloric, Sulfuric, and Acetic. Have you ever accidently gotten the peroxide on your fingers? Turns them white and stings for awhile.

Experiments I have performed as a child include: putting a raw egg in a mocrowave. It makesd a squeaky noise - right before it explodes. Another genius move was taking a wire that was exposed at both ends and plugging both ends in an outlet. It bore a strong resemblance to the scene in Back To The Future when Doc Brown was trying to get things connected to create enough energy (121 Gigawatts) to get the Delorean back to 1985. Lotsa sparks.
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Not much for explosion experience here. Worst I ever saw was a guy lighting a match behind his but and blasting a wall full of flamable chemicals. Big Boom. it was hilarius though. No one got hurt.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]I think there are a few forum members here who can identify with explosions.

Lets see...Ozzy? Tamlin? Anyone else want to chime in?

Glad you are ok and there wasn't too much damage...except to your pride.

I was thinking of PYRO when I read this!

Never blew anything up myself...However my genius moves were of another nature. I used to love to climb to the top of anything shaky. Like the swing set that's not properly fasted to the ground....OR THE TOP OF A TALL PINE TREE IN A HURRICANE!!! Hey, it was fun to get blown around....
 
Well Im glad everything is O.K.
I have laways wanted to makean explosion.
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Its not that often you finish the day with a bang.
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Back when I was just a puppy...long before the internet...I found a recipe for gun powder in an old book about Marco Polo.

In those days it aroused no suspicion when I went to the neighborhood pharmacy and bought the three (NO, I am not going to list them) very common chemicals.  Bob Moorehead and I then mixed up about a pound in the proper portions, made a wick per the instructions and poured it into a very heavy steel can with a screw on lid.  We then punched a whole in it, inserted the fuse and placed it outside next to his dad’s brand knew garage.

It worked just fine...blew a four foot wide hole in the side, rearranged everything inside and started a fire in the dry grass.  The local fire department extinguished it after it had burnt about a half acre and charred the whole side of the garage.

Back in those days corporal punishment was an accepted method of disciple for stupid behavior and it was administered with great delight
 
hahahahahahahah, what are the chemicals,I am going to do that in front of the persons house who is racist to me. ROFL.
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  • #10
Ohhhh! Gotta try that!
I did make a few things explodes, but usually due to pressure/heat more than any other reason, my "explosions" due to chemical components usually do more frotting and bubbles than anything else. Pretty colorful bubbles =D!
 
  • #11
nice pipe bomb experiment. never did anything like that. always wanted to try a small fertilizer bomb but never worked out the courage. starting grass fires around here can get you shot if yah burn up the wrong persons land or at the vary least wind up in the hospital for an extended stay from the beating your father would administer soon after. i got pretty good at using various fire crackers in unconventional ways though. you would be surprised how lil it takes to literaly vaporize an aluminum can. now i confine my slef to a lot smaller "explosions" in a rifled tube
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Rattler
 
  • #13
hehe, even tho its only the first few days of high school, ive seen already a couple of chemical reactions. aluminum cans are surpriseingly feeble in a strong reaction, and turned to dust. so far, my fave is sodium in water
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. Zongyi
 
  • #14
I've seen footage of a guy throwing a big chunk of sodium into a small farm-pond, that was fun...

Anyone ever watch the videos of the dead whales being blown up???


A few years ago we got a bunch of the more feeble Canadian fireworks and rigged up a pumpkin which was utterly destroyed in the ensuing explosion, we couldn't find most of it afterwards
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