## 12. PRANKS AND ACCIDENTS

#### Subsections

- 12. pranks and accidents - general
- 12.1 mathematics
- 12.2 burning metals
- 12.3 accidents

### 12.3 ACCIDENTS

Index | Comments and Contributions | previous page

chemistry
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    From: Patrick Hughes <phughes@swbell.net>

                        I BLEW UP MY VERY FIRST EXPERIMENT

    I have the dubious distinction of having been the only one I know to have
    blown-up my very first chemistry experiment.  Basically it was done not so
    much to acquire knowledge as to familiarize us with the equipment.  The
    idea was to put some materials on a flat piece of steel, place it on a ring
    above a bunsen burner, and heat it.  As I recall we had a strip of
    magnesium, some sugar, a piece of iron, some sulfur and a few other odds &
    ends.  The sulfur was the only thing that did anything interesting (so
    far).  It's important to note the arrangement of the counters on which we
    worked.  The tops had a sink off to one end and there were two gas valves
    for the burners, one on each side of the sink's faucet with the outlets
    pointing toward the sink.

    Anyway, once I had successfully made the collection of stuff on the steel
    plate red hot and noted the results on paper it was time to clean up.
    Unfortunately in the process of shutting down the heat I had pulled the
    hose off the gas valve shortly before turning it off.  The gas collected in
    the sink.  When the hot metal met the gas: WHOOMP!  Credible observers tell
    me I was standing there momentarily enveloped by a bright blue ball
     that stretched from the sink to the ceiling.  I lost most of my eyebrows,
    the hair on my arms, but got a fairly good haircut once I'd shampooed the
    odor out.

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    From: "Charles S." <michele.seipp@verizon.net>

    IN 6th grade our delightful teacher had decided to take us on a field trip
    to Pisgah (I think this is how yo uspell it) Volcano in Barstow CA. He had
    wanted us to crawl around in the lava tubes and check them out. Well about
    3 hours later we emerged dirty and with major headaches (From banging our
    head on the freaking ceiling) he told us it was time to take a special
    trip. 1/2 of us would go with him into a "Secret" Cave and the other half
    would follow Mr. Johnson to the VOlcano. I was one of the lucky ones to go
    to the cave. I will never forget the hell that broke loose there.

    First thing that happened was we had a bomb threat. We were 50 feet into
    the earth and we have a bomb threat. It was amazing. Some fool found a box
    that was heavy and contained some black powder in it. He started screaming
    I Found a bomb!  I found a bomb! We all looked up and took off failing to
    scale the wall that mared the entrance to the cave. Then our teacher
    lumbers over there and opens the box.......... in it contains the
    "Bomb". This bomb was made up of powdered lava rock and paper and a bit of
    ink. College students had been signing the paper in this box for an
    experiments. The fool who scared us didn't have a good day after school :p.

    The second thing and most devestating has to be when we traversed this
    little one foot by one foot hole in the wall. I was the first one in along
    with my obese friend. Well halfway through we come to a low point in the
    ceiling. I get through with a tad of difficulty but as I continue on I hear
    a frantic shout "What the he** I am stuck!" sure enough my fat little
    friend had gotten himself wedged inbetween the low ceiling and the floor. I
    panicked and tryed to turn around and I couldn't move! I as well had gotten
    stuck. I uttered some curses at him for being so stupid. We called through
    the tunnel for help. About 10 minutes later our teacher came through and
    gave us a shove. We were free and scrambled frantically to get out of
    their. I crawled a little too fast and shot out the hole expecting to hit
    the floor without injury. What I disregarded however was the fact that the
    tunnel climbed upwarcds! and not at a slight angle! By the time I had
    reached the end we were over 12 feet off the ground. As I came out the end
    and didnt tou h the ground, I tumbled 12 feet down onto the floor. And if
    that wasnt bad enough, I missed the side of the pathway and rolled another
    5 feet into a pit of blackness. Barely being able to see I got up and felt
    along the edges till I reached the pathway to the main area were the
    students were laughing their butts off. I was ok except for these few
    things: A) I was covered in a black soot B) My shirt was ripped C) My pants
    kinda fell down... D) I was extremely cut up and a tad dizzy. My fat friend
    got the message and refrained from fallign down. He had the parent helper
    below help his rolly polly butt down. Anyhow, the girl that was mainly
    laughing at me about my pants fell and sat on a cactus. I got the last
    laugh heh.

chemistry
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    From: glyle@marie.seas.ucla.edu (George Lyle)

    Not quite a prank, but dang funny:

    While I was in a high school chem class, the teacher was showing how to
    properly heat a test tube with a Bunsen burner.  He said "never point the
    mouth of the tube toward you like this (pointing tube at his head)" Always
    point the test tube away from your body (turns test tube away).  At that
    instant, the alcohol/acid solution in the tube shot out and ignited,
    flaming a 5 foot periodic table on the wall.  Half of class broke out
    laughing while other half was frozen in seats.  Teacher grabs fire bottle
    and puts out fire.  Teacher never gave that demo in the same way again!

chemistry
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    From: tomcheng@soda.berkeley.edu (Thomas T. Cheng)

    We must have had the same chem teacher or something.  The exact same thing
    happened in our class, except it was our homework that caught on fire.

chemistry
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    From: michaec@beaufort.sfu.ca (Strider Coyle)

            This happened to me, except the *bottom* of the tube blew off and
    lit my binder on fire.

chemistry
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    From: Caththomas22@aol.com

My science teacher was such and interesting specimen. On our introduction lesson while explaining the safety in the classroom, he told us never to wave our hands about during experiments as he did this, he knocked over his bunsen burner setting light to all his lesson plans for most of the term. The next year while taking a class exam I caught him looking for some chemical in a jar. By sniffing the bottles. (not like we were told how to) but by sniffing them nose to rim. I just burst out laughing when I saw him stagger after finding the amonia. Good Old Mr B.

physics
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    From: isoner@clt.fx.net (Isoner)

    My science teacher gave a demonstration on electric current by makeing
    circits in beakers of salt water.  Then he dropped it so that half of it
    was in a beaker and the other half was out.  Theoreticaly he should have
    been able to pick it up with no problem because it was not completing a
    circut.  would have been safe, except he was leaning against the metal
    plumbing.  He almost put a dent in the chalk board.

    Later in the year he used the gas lines in the class rooms to blow bubbles
    and them ignite them with a match.  There is still a scorch mark uon the
    celing.

chemistry
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    From: jmartin@ll.mit.edu (James Martin)

    While I was a junior in high school, I took chemistry under our department
    chairman, Peter Quackenbush McKee. Mr. McKee was sharp, except for a
    tendency to do experiments that get out of hand. His most notable exploit
    (?) occurred during a demonstration of the thermite reaction.  This was
    done in a ceramic "cup" which sat in a sandbox on a lab bench covered with
    asbestos paper. In order to give a better idea of how hot it gets,
    Mr. McKee put a couple of nails and a couple of brass screws in the bottom
    of the cup before filling it with thermite. Well, actually he filled the
    cup about half-way with thermite, paused, then said "Well, let's go all the
    way" or words to that effect, THEN filled the cup. This immediately got our
    attention, since we had seen him in action before. He then put a little
    starter mixture on the top, and stuck a magnesium strip into it. In order
    that we might see the proceedings more clearly, he turned out the
    lights. As he was lighting the magnesium strip, he advised us, "This may
    spit a little, so why don't the guys in the front row move back a little?"

    This was enough to cause the entire class to move to the back wall. He
    shrugged, then lit the strip.

    The magnesium strip burned brightly until it reached the starter mixture,
    which sputtered a little, then the thermite caught. It did indeed spit a
    little, but as soon as the reaction zone moved below the surface it all
    became rather tame. After, say, 15 or 20 seconds, he remarked that we had
    gotten excited for nothing.

    Then the reaction zone reached the bottom of the cup.

    Now, thermite is hot enough that the byproducts are molten aluminum oxide
    floating in molten iron. This does nothing to iron nails, but it is hot
    enough to vaporize brass.

    In the darkened classrom, it looked for all the world like a Bessemer
    converter firing off in a steel mill. Blobs of molten iron were scattered
    across the floor like incandescent blobs of mercury as everyone tried
    simultaneously to levitate. Smoke rose from the benchtop, where puddles of
    iron had eaten through the asbestos paper, and from the baseboards where
    they had caught fire. It was all very impressive and no one was hurt. What
    more can one ask from a science experiment?

physics
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    From: GMNiehues@aol.com

     Liquid nitrogen can be a fun thing.  In my freshman chem class at a large
    university, the prof was fond of demos.  In a class of 300 people,
    something is needed to keep them awake.  So one day, he has several liters
    of liquid nitrogen, which he was using for his demos.  He did the usual --
    freeze a rubber ball and then shatter it, shrink a balloon, etc.  When he
    was finished, he had quite a bit left, but decided to do something with it
    rather than just return it to the storeroom.  Since liquid nitrogen in an
    open container will produce a nice fog, he said to the class, "I'll just
    pour it in the sink here."  He did, and continued lecturing.  About half a
    minute later, there was a nice POP! when the cast iron sink cracked in
    front of 300 witnesses.

chemistry
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    From: Huw Gallon <hgallon@openlinksw.co.uk>

    My father graduated in Chemical Engineering just after the war. About this
    time, some of the first polymers were being produced, specifically urea
    formaldehyde. My father's class were told to evaluate and "cost" the
    process. Naturally he began with a rough-and-ready demonstration of the
    reaction.

    The constituents are, of course, urea and formalin. Sulphuric acid is used
    as a catalyst to start the reaction. The word of caution is that one must
    add the sulphuric acid FIRST, then pour the reagents in a few drops at a
    time. Not my Dad. Into a flask went a pound or so of urea, several pints of
    formalin and finally the acid.

    The revolting mixture shuddered, heaved and made several disgusting
    noises. My Dad and his fellow students first gathered round and looked
    interested, then hastily backed away. Finally, the mixture erupted, the
    narrow neck of the flask allowing the "ejecta" to accelerate to quite a
    speed. It hit the ceiling and splattered over nearby desks and
    equipment. There it set, very rapidly and very hard.

physics
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                          COLD FUSION
    From: Chris Murray

     Hello group,

    I've lurked in and out of this group occasionally over the last 6 months or
    so, but I just remembered a story that might make some of you chuckle.

    When I was studying Materials Science in Trinity College Dublin years ago,
    the whole cold fusion thing erupted. Of course the media went mad over the
    whole thing and public interest was huge. Out of public demand, and no
    doubt spotting an opportunity for some free publicity, the Physics
    Department decided to give a public lecture on the science behind cold
    fusion.

    The day came and the crowd was much bigger than I thought it would be,
    maybe about 300-400 people - students and other lecturers and I suppose
    people from the press.  They filled the physics large lecture theatre and I
    believe the technicians even rigged up a TV connection to the smaller
    theatre downstairs. I was late for the lecture (as usual) and the only
    remaining seat in the large theatre was right in the middle of the front
    row.

    Prof. Mike Coey was giving the talk, an old hand in magnetism and
    superconductivity. He had even set up a little experiment on the desk in
    front of him, consisting of a few beakers, bits of metal, wires and a
    couple of thermometers. He explained that he had loaded some Pd with
    hydrogen and would now look for the reaction. He said that if the reaction
    worked, one could expect to see a temperature rise in the fusion cell over
    the control cell. There were little lead bricks surrounding the experiment,
    presumably to stop any radiation which might escape. The was a little
    unnerving as my seat meant that I was sitting about 5 feet from the thing!

    Anyway, he started the experiment and proceeded to give the main part of
    the talk. Interesting stuff, specially the bit about the original
    discoverers' experimental meltdown! The came the big moment - did the
    desktop experiment work!?

    The crowd went expectantly quiet. Mike was having a little difficulty
    reading the exact temperatures from the thermometers and had to stick his
    head right into the guts of the experiment to have a good look.
    Unfortunately I decided that this would be a good time to take a photo.  I
    grabbed my ancient Zenith camera, switched on the flash and ......POP!
    Poor Mike must have had a bit of a fright when all of a sudden there was a
    blinding flash of light! It must have seemed like the whole bloody thing
    had gone off! The crowd were pretty amused, although I don't think Mike was
    too impressed.

    Funny thing was that the experiment had actually produced a positive
    result! The temperature was higher in the fusion cell!

    Pity the bloody photograph wasn't in focus!

    Chris

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    From: "Ironclad Taco" <scones@fish.co.uk>

    From 'scones' scones@fish.co.uk

    When I was In year 7 (thats 11-12 yr olds) we had a trainee teacher for
    science for a while. It was the lesson of term so he decided to 'show off'
    a bit. He was going to show us the H2O + K -> H2 + KO2 (I think thats
    right) experiment, so he had a large water bath on his desk with perespex
    screens surrounding it. He started small with lithium and the class gasped
    as the lithium fizzed a bit and then dissapeared. He then used sodium the
    sodium whizzed around the bowl, caught fire and gradually, it all reacted
    with water and was gone with a small 'pop'. He then moved to pottasium. For
    this demonstration he made the people in the front row wear goggles. He had
    trouble cutting the pottasium and broke several stanley-knives attempting
    to do so. Eventually he gave up and dumped the large chunk in the bowl. The
    class watched as the potassium spontaneously caught fire, whizzed around
    the water bath and then exploded. It would have been fine had it not been
    such a large chunk of potassium. Pieces of pottasium shot up into the air
    and melted holes in the ceiling which are there to this day. One piece of
    potassium shot over the screen and burnt a clean hole in the fleece of one
    of the people in the front row at the base of their zip.

    And the moral of that story is *never* *ever*, under *any* circumstances
    sit in the front row of a science lesson. :-)

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    From : tomas_thefox2003@yahoo.ie (Tomás Fuchsbauer)

                    Japanese Advances in 'Toilet Technology’...

    Basic Moral Wisdom :

    NEVER MESS WITH THINGS YOU DON’T (COMPLETELY) UNDERSTAND :

    This is meant as a comical observation of international ineptitude. No
    disrespect is meant to anyone, quite the contrary. Such inquisitive acts
    frequently facilitate us getting a good well-needed laugh in an
    increasingly more serious world. If there are any errors and someone is
    more familiar with this kind of latrine, please let us know ! Here goes :

    I was told the 'skeleton of this exquisite parable’ by a Japanese co-worker
    over a decade ago (back in late 1992), about how a 'Westerner’ tried
    unsuccessfully to understand the inner workings of Japanese toilet
    technology through performance of some personal 'invasive’ research...

    It was a long time ago so I cannot recall the Japanese gentleman’s name and
    hope the tale is essentially accurate... arigato gozaimashita Nihon Jin-san
    (thanks again for the story). I have elaborated somewhat to facilitate a
    more entertaining read : The inventive Japanese have long been ahead in
    matters of technology and innovation. Even the humble lavatory has been
    taken to new levels of scientific development. The control units on either
    side of some models make the things look like they don’t look out of place
    on 'Star Trek’, 'Deepshit Nine’, 'Voyager’, or somewhere similar.

    What we used to term the 'luxurious wooden toilet seat’ long ago is now
    making a come-back. But in Japan the seats are typically electrically
    heated (to a nice comfortable temperature). Some models also have a thin
    rod that moves forward and squirts a thin stream of 'cleaning fluid’ (most
    likely plain water) up the users 'back-side’ after the job is done. One
    curious Westerner (what else would you expect from a 'manager’) wanted to
    examine this a bit more closely, so during a toilet visitation break he
    decided to take a 'real’ look. This close-up inspection resulted in the
    jacket of his suit, aswell as the shirt & tie..., receiving a nice dose of
    liquid. He did his very best to 'clean himself up’, but the evidence was
    still clearly visible. Apparantly a few Japanese managers and other
    personnel happened to be in the vacinity (ie. the corridor), according to
    my information, and they did manage to keep a straight face (with
    difficulty) until he had passed them by. Then an uncontainable eruption of
    laughter followed.

    Exactly when this incident transpired I was not told, suffice to say it had
    probably been a relatively recent event.

chemistry
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    From: "Steven Ryder" <steven_rangers_rule@hotmail.com>

    in third year chemistry we had just finished an experiment with meths or
    asatane and the teacher started talking about this experiment that she
    thought we had done we couldnt be arsed listening to her talk so we said we
    hadent done it so she told us to gather around the front desk she went to
    the store cupboard and got this old batterd syrup tin that had a pipe
    coming out from it the bit where you put the smoking stuff in she then
    proceded to put a spatulaor two off chrushed charcoal into the pipe then
    lit a candle she then started talking about how when things brunt the gases
    made have more volume than the substance burnt me and a freind looked in
    the pipe and thought thats not very much so we ladled in tons more charcoal
    when she wasnt looking she then came back placed the candle in the tin took
    no notice of the seemingly multiplying charcoal ,attached a footbal pump to
    the pipe ,explaind that when the pump was pushed it would make the charcoal
    in to a cloud and come into contact with the flame and explode she put the
    lid on me and my freind backed away passed the message on to other freinds
    only two people were standing close to the front this geordie bastard and
    the teacher she took hold of the pump we coverd our ears then boom which
    doesnt nearly cover the sound made the top fired off with a huge flame out
    of the top the sides split a bit of the tin went flying off smashed a glass
    off asatane with a flame following closely behind the asatane went up which
    left another scorch mark the teacher didnt have any eyebrows and the
    geordie one seemed to have had a little accident.

    apparently people in the college which was across the football (or if you
    are american soccer) field heard it.i am bloody surprised the teacher didnt
    investigate the nature of such a big explosion.

    p.s do not try this if the class room has a low ceiling that class room had
    a ceiling about 3.5 metres high

New after last time posted (February 28, 2004) chemistry
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    From: "Katrien De Gusseme" <katriendegusseme@hotmail.com>

    One class of organic chemistry, had us making esters... the smelly ones. We
    were supposed to make one that the assistant called "banana oil". That it
    hadn't stolen it's name became very clear when I was doing the final step
    in the process. Gently shake the ingredients in a "scheidtrechter"
    (separating funnel?) en release the CO2 that forms while the reaction is
    taking place.

    Apparently, I was not gentle enough for the cork shot out and my whole
    lab-table was covered with the stuff. Making the whole lab smell like
    banana's instantly.

    It still smelled after cleaning with solvents and airing the lab for 24
    hours.

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    From: "Timothy Riley" <trileynd2@earthlink.net>

     I have not always been a geologist.  No, I am still a physicist, and am
    learning to be a geologist.  There is just two small problems with this.
    One I hate being out doors, and two I am accident prone.  Perhaps this is
    not the best combination for a geologist, but I make it work.  I have had
    to make it work for past experiences have forced me to make them work.
    Perhaps a few examples would help.

    I learned that field work is not for me.  This was painfully obvious when I
    was taking glacial geology and not nice things happened to me.  Okay in
    Ohio we have very nice glacial deposits.  Now we can usually only see, up
    close, the deposits when a small stream or river has cut out a section and
    exposed the glacial deposits.  Well on one of those trips with the class I
    found the one spot in the stream, that we had to cross, where there was a
    three foot hole.  I am only five feet eight, and the water was up about two
    feet.  You do the math!

    It was also on glacial field trips that I found I have bad luck with
    falling rocks.  There were trees growing on top of these out crops of
    glacial material, and well a stiff wind can blow these things over.  One
    incident of this I had a choice.  I could have a hundred and fifty pound
    tree land on me like a pile driver, or dive into the river.  I came home
    wet that day, but without a cracked skull.

    One field trip with my mineralogy class we went to a quarry and scavenged
    the large boulders before they were crushed up into gravel.  Okay these
    were huge boulders.  I was standing on one the size of a bus and planned on
    jumping over a deep space between the boulders and land on another bolder
    and swing my legs over the top.  That didn't happen.  Okay first I had to
    jump onto a lower bolder and then I would jump onto the bolder I planned on
    swinging my legs over.  When I jumped onto the lower bolder my momentum
    carried me face first into the bolder I planned on swinging over.  Well I
    was wearing a garment that had pockets on the front, and in those pockets I
    had the minerals that I intended to keep.  Well I hit a mostly flat bolder
    and those minerals were jammed into my abdomen.  I say mostly since there
    was a part of the bolder jutting out right where my right leg came into
    contact (I still have the scar).  Well when I hit the bolder I hung on for
    my life.  You see I was hanging over the deep pit between the boulders, and
    if I fell I would be even more hurt.  So pulling myself up by my finger
    tips I made it to the top of a different bolder.  When one of my class
    mates asked if I was okay my response was, "let me check.  No."

    My latest excursion out of the lab was on a paleontology trip to collect
    fossils.  We went to a road cut just outside of Cincinnati where the road
    cut was gigantic thirty to twenty foot high steps in shale and limestone.
    The way we could get to the next step was to climb up the area where the
    rain had washed down the step.  Well I was climbing one (in hopes of
    finding a trilobite) and going slow.  I was carrying my rock hammer and
    collection bag with me and when I had my head just peeking over the top of
    the next step I placed the bag and hammer on the step and started to pull
    myself up.  That was when the shale decided it didn't like me anymore.  If
    you have ever played with shale you know it crumbles under any pressure,
    and that is what it did to me.  I felt like I was on a three stooges show
    because as me shirt was ripped apart so did my skin begin to do so.  When I
    stopped at the bottom of the step a quick inspection just meant that I
    needed Band-Aids, and I had to climb up and get my rock hammer.

    On that same trip we were on the other side of the road just getting to the
    level we needed.  Okay I was trying to get to the step and my boot got
    caught under one rock and my body still went forward.  Well to get both
    feet under me I sort of jumped, not the smartest thing I had ever done.  I
    went forward head first.  I have always said that being short is not so
    bad, now I think that it is a God send.  If I was the six foot tall man
    that all the women find attractive I would be dead.  When I landed I landed
    on my knees and hands.  My fingers were curling over the edge of the step.
    My head stuck over the side and I was looking at the thirty feet down to
    the next step, and the seventy feet down to the road.  I was told that the
    professor fell silent and was in shock when he saw me almost go over the
    edge.  My line after that was, "Guess who still has a heart beat?"

    These are just some of the experiences that lead me to believe that when I
    become a graduate student I will not even make it to my doctoral thesis.  I
    will die so quick that I might not even get to see a winter.  So this is my
    testament to people that says, "I warned you."

    -S. P. Riley

next page | Index | Comments and Contributions

#### Subsections

- 12. pranks and accidents - general
- 12.1 mathematics
- 12.2 burning metals
- 12.3 accidents

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