The mark of the Chemist
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Someone spilled their unknown chemical compound that they were trying to identify all over my hands and arms and torso. I went to wash it off, excruciating pain, I then positively identified the compound as NaOH, had burns for more than a week. XD
The worst that has happened in my university was somebody putting organic stuff into the nitric acid waste (for the uninitiated, nitric acid + organic things + time = bang). I'm pretty sure you can still see the result in the lab somewhere...
The worst that I ever did was last spring. I was using microwave digestion, and was about to open the first container. I forgot that the 16M nitric acid inside was still boiling, and managed to get a drop of it on my arm, about 2cm above the glove. Didn't notice it until later that night when it turned bright red and itched like crazy. Left a cool scar though...
The worst that I ever did was last spring. I was using microwave digestion, and was about to open the first container. I forgot that the 16M nitric acid inside was still boiling, and managed to get a drop of it on my arm, about 2cm above the glove. Didn't notice it until later that night when it turned bright red and itched like crazy. Left a cool scar though...
Now, I can't say that my biggest screw up in chemistry was because of me, rather say it was because of the teacher.
I had a project during my last year of high-school where I travelled to diffrent schools on the island I live on to teach chemistry and some of the experiments involved showing that some minerals make the fire burn with a diffrent colour when thrown into the mix and another was a experiment where you put a piece of paper in a mixture of water and ethanol (the paper catches fire but the heat from the fire is just enough to evaporate the water, thus leaving the paper unharmed).
When performing (wouldn't say teaching, was more of a show than a lesson) me and my assistance poured some of the remaining ethanol mix into a aluminum container, lit it on fire and added som simple salt to show that simpel table salt burnt with a yellow colour. The teacher, who was also enjoying/supervising the show thought "Well, that heat can burn the table" so he decided he'd pick it up with a small tong. He grabbed one end, lifted and spilled the burning ethanol all over the table.
Now, knowing that the ethanol was mixed with enough water it would just burn up and leave a bunch of water I did not panic. What did freak me out though was the fact that the flaming liquid was inches away from a butane container.
Explosion risk anyone?
Also, I got most of these ideas from my chemistry teacher, that guy was fucking insane xD. We used to do improvised experiments all the time, still have some of the shrapnel from one of them xD
(PS. If anyone is gonna try that water/ethanol thing you want 70% water in the case of normal paper)
I had a project during my last year of high-school where I travelled to diffrent schools on the island I live on to teach chemistry and some of the experiments involved showing that some minerals make the fire burn with a diffrent colour when thrown into the mix and another was a experiment where you put a piece of paper in a mixture of water and ethanol (the paper catches fire but the heat from the fire is just enough to evaporate the water, thus leaving the paper unharmed).
When performing (wouldn't say teaching, was more of a show than a lesson) me and my assistance poured some of the remaining ethanol mix into a aluminum container, lit it on fire and added som simple salt to show that simpel table salt burnt with a yellow colour. The teacher, who was also enjoying/supervising the show thought "Well, that heat can burn the table" so he decided he'd pick it up with a small tong. He grabbed one end, lifted and spilled the burning ethanol all over the table.
Now, knowing that the ethanol was mixed with enough water it would just burn up and leave a bunch of water I did not panic. What did freak me out though was the fact that the flaming liquid was inches away from a butane container.
Explosion risk anyone?
Also, I got most of these ideas from my chemistry teacher, that guy was fucking insane xD. We used to do improvised experiments all the time, still have some of the shrapnel from one of them xD
(PS. If anyone is gonna try that water/ethanol thing you want 70% water in the case of normal paper)
Nothing too major, I purposely lit up an entire box of matches at once over a bunsen burner though. That was fucking awesome.
I do know a kid that accidentally set a girls sleeve on fire though in the lab.
I do know a kid that accidentally set a girls sleeve on fire though in the lab.
I set myself on fire once. We were doing something about combustion, I don't really remember because I don't learn anything in science. But anyway, we had this kerosene container and I lit it and I didn't expect the flame to be so huge.
Once, one of our beakers exploded and we had to stay behind after class to clean it up. Most of my science class accidents end in detention.
Once, one of our beakers exploded and we had to stay behind after class to clean it up. Most of my science class accidents end in detention.
Girl: "I accidently inhaled some concentrated ammonia, it smells so horrible it gave me a headache"
In my head: "Hm I wonder if it really smells that bad .. "
It didn't gave me a headache, but I still regretted smelling it. Made me actually learn to appreciate those fumehoods.
In my head: "Hm I wonder if it really smells that bad .. "
It didn't gave me a headache, but I still regretted smelling it. Made me actually learn to appreciate those fumehoods.
I don't know about other high schools in Toronto or Canada in general, but ours (and, based no hear-say evidence, at least a couple of others) had pretty strong tech program. I didn't take the grade 12 robotics course, but these courses started like in grade 10 (9 if you count introduction stuff) for us and while we didn't really do much in grade 10 aside from fairly simple wiring and pneumatics, culminating in having a robot battle as a final project, in grade 11 and 12 there's programming involved.Quaxar said:
But, yeah, it was a normal public school. Nothing fancy.
Interesting, you seem to have a far superior educational system. Or maybe it's just envy that you have a public school that teaches robotics while I have to wait for uni to do it. Of course I can and do it privately a bit, but it's just not the same.Billion Backs said:
Pharmacy student here. No accidents but it's not rare that one or two people from that year manage to set part of themselves on fire during a semester.
Well, there was the time I had a few pellets of sodium in my cupboard in the lab, I thought theyd already reacted with moisture from the air and turned into NaOH, so poured some water over it to dilute it and the n throw it away. Turns out most of the sodium hadn't reacted after all and caught fire. It looked pretty though.
Then were was all the usual stuff with peroxide and nictric acid spilled over hands and clothes, which always looked vaguely cool, although nothing beats the guy who managed to get boiling nictric acid on his face.
One of the less pleasant moments was a lung full of bromine, and the day we found out that somebody had put a cyanide solution (the clear, colourless variety!) into a Colabottle and left it in the corridor. And of course all the SO3 fumes....
Then were was all the usual stuff with peroxide and nictric acid spilled over hands and clothes, which always looked vaguely cool, although nothing beats the guy who managed to get boiling nictric acid on his face.
One of the less pleasant moments was a lung full of bromine, and the day we found out that somebody had put a cyanide solution (the clear, colourless variety!) into a Colabottle and left it in the corridor. And of course all the SO3 fumes....
That thing with the acid and my friend's face. Definitely an accident. The cops believed me, so you should, too.
I spilled fahaldamide or however you spell it all over my hands and ended up half paralyzing them. also in physics i made a powerpack explode as well as 5 bulbs (they shattered)