Remember that I was in High School from 1958 to 1962 and most of these things happend Junior year. If you tried this stuff today you'd get suspended, expelled or jailed.
Explosive - Chemistry class - Since I would later major in Chemistry in college it would not be a surprise that this was a "good" class for me. One of the things that the teachers learned was that the best way to deal with a student who is ahead of the rest of the class is to give them something to do. It turns out that it is relatively simple to make a contact explosive. This stuff is safe when it is wet but when it dries out it will explode with the slightest touch or vibration. It makes a nice little popping sound - a bit like a cap pistol (do those still exist?). What can you do with this material?
1) Exploding chalk. Drill a small hole in the end of a piece of chalk, put the material in the hole, put some chalk dust on the end and then make sure that this is the only piece of chalk available at the blackboard for some other class. Writing on the blackboard with the chalk is enough to set it off... Some of the non-science teachers were quite surprised.
2) Convert a starch, water and yeast into C2H5OH (ethanol to you mere mortals). With the right distilling aparatus you can make a sufficiently concentrated mixture such that the product will burn (about 120 proof I recall). Our product was taste tested by the school principal and by the prefect of discipline (so you could say that they knew what we were doing).
3) (2Na +2 H2O -> 2NaOH + H2 and energy). We obtained a lump of sodium about the size of a sugar cube and conducted this experiment in a pond in Golden Gate Park. The sodium had an oily coating, so at first nothing much happened. When the oil dispersed the lump would sink, then bubble up to the surface releasing the hydrogen. Since it was hot enough the hydrogen then reacted with the oxygen in the air forming water. Nice sound and light show!
4) Contact Explosive - the substance in #1 can also be placed on stair treads (the school classroom building was 3 stories tall). If you time it right, the material will be dry when the next class change occurs and shoes on the stair treads will set the contact explosive off. Did I mention it makes a nice purplish smoke?
5) Contact Explosive - also works on the wheels of teacher desk chairs.
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1 comment:
What? No tutorials? I want exploding chalk! Who says you can't play tricks on your kids? Help!
And, BTW, here in the South, they still sell cap guns, and caps. SO FUN! I have to hide them when our politically correct friends come over, but otherwise, they are a favorite amongst us less-than-correct parents.
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