My old chem professor said that a colleague of his was cleaning out an old supply stash in a lab and found an unmarked jar that he couldn't open, so he submerged it underwater in the sink to try and loosen it a bit. Thankfully he left the room after that, because it turned out to be a bunch of sodium in the jar and when the water seeped into the jar it blew out the lab's windows.
When I was an undergrad, at the start of every fall semester a group of students dropped a big chunk of sodium into the Charles river from the bridge. Then everyone ran. Very spectacular -- both the sodium, and hundreds of MIT students attempting to run ;-)
(Don't do this. This all happened back in the quasi-innocent days before mass hysteria. Such incidents are now the subject of criminal investigations. These days, even a few blinkenlights will cause trouble.)
I could have a lot of fun with some of those metals......
ReplyDeleteI wish this was on facebook so I could click the "like" button.
ReplyDeleteYou can now check 'like' instead of 'useful' and 'dislike' instead of 'not useful.' We are flexible ;-)
ReplyDeleteMy old chem professor said that a colleague of his was cleaning out an old supply stash in a lab and found an unmarked jar that he couldn't open, so he submerged it underwater in the sink to try and loosen it a bit. Thankfully he left the room after that, because it turned out to be a bunch of sodium in the jar and when the water seeped into the jar it blew out the lab's windows.
ReplyDeletethats so awesome
ReplyDelete"Let's try cesium." ~ Famous last words
ReplyDeleteWhen I was an undergrad, at the start of every fall semester a group of students dropped a big chunk of sodium into the Charles river from the bridge. Then everyone ran. Very spectacular -- both the sodium, and hundreds of MIT students attempting to run ;-)
ReplyDeleteCitation.
(Don't do this. This all happened back in the quasi-innocent days before mass hysteria. Such incidents are now the subject of criminal investigations. These days, even a few blinkenlights will cause trouble.)
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