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A little light light....
AdeV:
Sodium in water was another good reaction to see, especially if a decent sized piece of sodium is used.
Thermite, by the time I was at secondary school (early 1980s), they showed us the reaction but out-doors & we had to be several dozen feet away, which I think reduced its impact somewhat.
John Stevenson:
--- Quote from: AdeV on January 21, 2013, 11:42:57 AM ---Sodium in water was another good reaction to see, especially if a decent sized piece of sodium is used.
--- End quote ---
Yer sodium another good one.
The exhaust valves on the Rolls Royce merlin engine were sodium filled to help dissipate the heat. We used to crop the heads off and poke the sodium out until you had a matchbox full.
At knock off time the guys would go into the washroom to get cleaned up for going home.
In the middle was a big stainless steel tray that served as a sink, 3 foot wide and probably 10 foot long that you could stand round on all 4 side full of warm water.
Trick was to get in early, wash up and as you were leaving throw the matchbox full of sodium into the sink and watch it wizz round like a demented thing setting fire to all the hairs on the blokes arms.
Oh happy days................
raynerd:
Without a word of a lie, I showed group 1 with metal today! Potassium is a better show than sodium.
The advice on thermite has changed now. They did use to do it outside but since I've been teaching the advice is to do it indoors again. Quite a few teachers were hurt I believe with the mixture blowing up in their face in the wind during lighting! Or so I'm told.
John...a match box full!!! Advice to demo now is a "rice grain" size piece. :-(
raynerd:
Just a note to say it is really interesting hearing what experiments did stick in people's minds.
I always enjoyed cracking paraffin oil at school and still do today. Distillation was a good one, made better by the fact that our teacher hasn't fit the condenser properly and the alcohol spilt out and the whole setup turned into a wall of flames!
Other nice one with a Bunsen coming to the end of its life is to add the oxygen cylinder into the air hole and watch the top of the Bunsen melt away. They really look to be steel but I wouldn't have thought that could melt them...but it does!
Off topic - sorry.
John Stevenson:
Talking of experiments at school, the bike sheds featured a lot in mine :lol:
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