@Kyeh@yakkoTDI back in the day I was also able to bring dry ice home to play with. Had a few fun 4th of Julys at my house with exploding soda bottles and such. Now it is a safety concern so employees cant grab a cooler of dry ice pellets on the way home. sigh…
@tinamarie1974
I can still bring home dry ice pellets, if I’m lucky enough to be in the lab when they get a delivery that’s using dry ice. When the kids were smaller we did a tremendous number of experiments on expansion, flammability, propulsion, displacement, etc etc using with dry ice.
One time at work I threw a couple of pellets in mop bucket, then asked the housekeeper what kind of chemicals she had mixed in the bucket… telling her she’s going to kill us all! She was freaking out!
@chienfou fantastic prank! And well done on the experiments. I can tell you the few 4th of July holidays that I brought some home my little cousins had a blast and they learned a lot! No experiments gone wrong, but grandpa was not paying attention and grabbed a cup for a drink of water. Not sure how he didn’t notice the disipating ice/fog. We stopped him in time!!
@chienfou@tinamarie1974 As kids we’d get dry ice 3 hours out of town to bring home Klondikes back when they weren’t sold everywhere. Then we’d play with it like watching it shutter across the floor, pour water on it… Sometimes we’d take it to the nearby lake, go to the bridge and drop it in the water where the fish congregated to watch them scatter and the water bubble up (shallow there).
@hchavers High school barely existed when I was in high school, for just a few years earlier, it ended with the 11th grade. The 12th grade was added just as was high school itself to keep more kids in school and out of the workplace in hard times. Now we have college for that.
Liquid N2 was certainly around, but not in my high school. As a chemist years later, I had more than a few opportunities to satisfy any curiosities about liquid N2. Took about an hour. Did the frozen grape thing, etc. etc. etc.
And dangerous too. besides the danger of frozen flesh (frost bite), and eyeballs (similar to a severe burn), oxygen can condense into the liquid N2 as it become liquid at a temperature below that of O2. Usually not a problem as most containers of liq N2 are continuously boiling off and there is relatively little O2 that can condense into it. But it does happen under certain circumstances, and a container even of a little bit of O2 combusting (explosively) can ruin your whole day.
I graduated in 1959 back when China didn’t send us their bad air in return for our good air, Cuba hadn’t gone Communist, the pill hadn’t been introduced, the only drugs were the ‘enes’ and ‘ol’ (Caffeine and nicotine. Caffeine was consumed daily as Maxwell House, Chase and Sanborn, Chock-full o Nuts, etc. and nicotine was Lucky Strike, Camel, Chesterfield, Old Gold, etc. and “ol” was alcohol depending on what part of the country one lived could be distilled spirits, brew spirits or moonshine
@hchavers@Jackinga graduated in 67, still remember the Liguid N2 demo in grade school by traveling science guys, he froze a rubber ball and when he bounced it, it shattered
@Jackinga ok, i admit liquid nitrogen was around, but my school district did not have a big budget for science and the arts. Sports, especially football, on the other hand, had (has) seemingly infinite budget. Can you guess the school district, generally?
@hchavers@Jackinga@winecaseaholic We did the shatter the ball “game” at the 6th grade science school camp (to keep girls from losing their interest in science which our study said it worked) I ran at an electron beam accelerator facility. We also had a selection of other things we’d put in that (and other substances/things) and have the students try to predict (after a short class) what would happen to the stuff.
I had the opportunity to endure dozens of science exhibitions with a few hundred warts being frozen off over a year or so. Did not enjoy. Only one survives 60 years later. That bottle makes me cringe to this day.
@rustyh3 similar, but only one big plantars wart on my foot when i was in middle school.
back when GP’s would actually do mild surgical procedures(ingrown toenails, moles, etc) in office, instead of automatically sending you to a specialist.
@earlyre@rustyh3 I once went to the Dr. to have a mole on my back checked out. The physician’s assistant checked it out, said it was not melanoma, but if it was bothering me he could freeze it off. I thought, “Well, I’m here so why not?”.
The actual procedure stung a little, but was not that bad. But then a few days later, the dead tissue sloughed away, leaving a wound that hurt a lot. It was difficult to sleep on my back for a couple of weeks as it healed. Now it is a dime-sized puckered scar that I call my GSW (Gun Shot Wound).
If I knew then what I know now, I would not have the mole removed.
I graduated from highschool in 1979. Science education was very important during the space race in the 1960s, so I saw many liquid nitrogen demonstrations while I was in grade school. We went on field trips across the border to the Toronto Science Center several times. They did liquid nitrogen demos.
I got a summer job in 1978 at the local pacemaker battery factory.
I was told the story of a previous summer hire who had taken a block of lithium about the size of a deck of cards from the factory floor and threw it in a toilet. The toilet was spewing hydrogen and the block of lithium was bouncing around energetically. This wasn’t particularly dangerous, but he panicked and flushed the toilet. The hydrogen couldn’t get out fast enough. The resulting explosion embedded porcelain shards in the plaster walls and acoustic ceiling. However the porcelain didn’t have enough energy to get through both layers of the sheet metal dividers between the stalls. Luckily, the kid was behind one of those partitions when at the moment of explosion, so he was not hurt, but he was fired.
So I was not allowed onto the factory floor by myself. Nor was I allowed to play with the liquid nitrogen on the loading dock. I did see the memo warning loading dock employees that liquid nitrogen was not to be used to freeze frogs and shatter them on the floor, or for any other “experiments”.
We had a liquid oxygen demo instead but same principle. Then the teacher was explaining things and ignored the vat and tubing until the tube exploded. I forget the explanation for that
My high school science was electric car. We made an electric car and raced it with other schools. We were all hand picked by 9th grade science teachers, I was the only girl in the class both years. So I never had any of those types of classes. Even in college I avoided it.
No liquified gases, but a buddy and I spent one 4th of July (as teenagers) learning about fun things to do with oxygen and acetylene from his dad’s cutting torch. We started with balloons but eventually worked our way up to garbage bags. We learned early on (the hard way - of course -what other way is there?) to put some water in the plastic bags to cut the static electricity before filling them. Fortunately, the flimsy plastic produced no nasty shrapnel and only limited percussion when it exploded. But really big, loud bangs!
At about 9PM, the sheriff called and said the neighbors had complained and we should stop “setting off the dynamite”. Thus ended our Independence Day fun.
A small oxy-acetylene balloon was terrifying enough for me. We came this close to breaking all the windows on both sides of the street.
I’ll never forget the huge pane of glass directly across the street from us dancing forward & backwards in the frame. I had no idea glass could bend that far!
@blaineg Yep, garbage bags. At one point, we tried putting a “bag o’ boom” under an inverted metal container (the bottom 1/3 of a 50 gallon drum) and detonating. It blew it about 20 feet in the air and bulged the bottom. (We were standing behind a barrier a good distance from the “experiment”. )
Amazingly, all body parts remained intact during our holiday follies.
I used to do fun with science demonstrations for local schools- usually younger than high school. We had liquid nitrogen and also ignited balloons filled with hydrogen. And we had a Van de Graaff generator. I loved that thing.
I volunteer with the local science museum now- I used to do demos but now they mostly use volunteers to keep kids from tapping on the tarantula tanks. I miss the flames.
Nope.
Nope but I can at work every day!!!
@tinamarie1974
@tinamarie1974 I have questions!!!
@yakkoTDI @kyeh
/giphy giggle
/giphy mad scientist
@Kyeh @yakkoTDI back in the day I was also able to bring dry ice home to play with. Had a few fun 4th of Julys at my house with exploding soda bottles and such. Now it is a safety concern so employees cant grab a cooler of dry ice pellets on the way home. sigh…
@tinamarie1974
I can still bring home dry ice pellets, if I’m lucky enough to be in the lab when they get a delivery that’s using dry ice. When the kids were smaller we did a tremendous number of experiments on expansion, flammability, propulsion, displacement, etc etc using with dry ice.
One time at work I threw a couple of pellets in mop bucket, then asked the housekeeper what kind of chemicals she had mixed in the bucket… telling her she’s going to kill us all! She was freaking out!
@chienfou fantastic prank! And well done on the experiments. I can tell you the few 4th of July holidays that I brought some home my little cousins had a blast and they learned a lot! No experiments gone wrong, but grandpa was not paying attention and grabbed a cup for a drink of water. Not sure how he didn’t notice the disipating ice/fog. We stopped him in time!!
@chienfou @tinamarie1974 As kids we’d get dry ice 3 hours out of town to bring home Klondikes back when they weren’t sold everywhere. Then we’d play with it like watching it shutter across the floor, pour water on it… Sometimes we’d take it to the nearby lake, go to the bridge and drop it in the water where the fish congregated to watch them scatter and the water bubble up (shallow there).
/showme a liquid nitrogen demonstration
Nope, but only because my AP Chem teacher was being safe. Can’t mix drinking and liquid nitrogen. She was a really good teacher.
No but my kids got one when coming with me to the dermatologist.
Brainiacs!
Liquid nitrogen didn’t exist when I was in high school.
@hchavers High school barely existed when I was in high school, for just a few years earlier, it ended with the 11th grade. The 12th grade was added just as was high school itself to keep more kids in school and out of the workplace in hard times. Now we have college for that.
Liquid N2 was certainly around, but not in my high school. As a chemist years later, I had more than a few opportunities to satisfy any curiosities about liquid N2. Took about an hour. Did the frozen grape thing, etc. etc. etc.
And dangerous too. besides the danger of frozen flesh (frost bite), and eyeballs (similar to a severe burn), oxygen can condense into the liquid N2 as it become liquid at a temperature below that of O2. Usually not a problem as most containers of liq N2 are continuously boiling off and there is relatively little O2 that can condense into it. But it does happen under certain circumstances, and a container even of a little bit of O2 combusting (explosively) can ruin your whole day.
I graduated in 1959 back when China didn’t send us their bad air in return for our good air, Cuba hadn’t gone Communist, the pill hadn’t been introduced, the only drugs were the ‘enes’ and ‘ol’ (Caffeine and nicotine. Caffeine was consumed daily as Maxwell House, Chase and Sanborn, Chock-full o Nuts, etc. and nicotine was Lucky Strike, Camel, Chesterfield, Old Gold, etc. and “ol” was alcohol depending on what part of the country one lived could be distilled spirits, brew spirits or moonshine
So when did you graduate, already?
@hchavers @Jackinga graduated in 67, still remember the Liguid N2 demo in grade school by traveling science guys, he froze a rubber ball and when he bounced it, it shattered
@Jackinga ok, i admit liquid nitrogen was around, but my school district did not have a big budget for science and the arts. Sports, especially football, on the other hand, had (has) seemingly infinite budget. Can you guess the school district, generally?
@hchavers @Jackinga @winecaseaholic We did the shatter the ball “game” at the 6th grade science school camp (to keep girls from losing their interest in science which our study said it worked) I ran at an electron beam accelerator facility. We also had a selection of other things we’d put in that (and other substances/things) and have the students try to predict (after a short class) what would happen to the stuff.
I had the opportunity to endure dozens of science exhibitions with a few hundred warts being frozen off over a year or so. Did not enjoy. Only one survives 60 years later. That bottle makes me cringe to this day.
@rustyh3 similar, but only one big plantars wart on my foot when i was in middle school.
back when GP’s would actually do mild surgical procedures(ingrown toenails, moles, etc) in office, instead of automatically sending you to a specialist.
@earlyre @rustyh3 I once went to the Dr. to have a mole on my back checked out. The physician’s assistant checked it out, said it was not melanoma, but if it was bothering me he could freeze it off. I thought, “Well, I’m here so why not?”.
The actual procedure stung a little, but was not that bad. But then a few days later, the dead tissue sloughed away, leaving a wound that hurt a lot. It was difficult to sleep on my back for a couple of weeks as it healed. Now it is a dime-sized puckered scar that I call my GSW (Gun Shot Wound).
If I knew then what I know now, I would not have the mole removed.
In grade school, I did!
Didn’t get to play with LN2 until PChem lab in college.
Almost as much fun as Ca carbide.
@2many2no Ahh, CaC2! Back in the day when my son was little, I got a carbide cannon from which we had loud reports.
We got the good ol’ alkali metals mixed with water explosion demo. I loved it and it really got my brain working.
@sicc574 So your brain runs on hydrogen? Or does it take an explosion to get you started?
Me? I find a cup of coffee is enough. Hold the H2. Hold the explosion. But I do like extra cream, but no sugar.
Only on the internet. Which didn’t exist in high school.
How about LOX?
@blaineg Grill? What grill?
@blaineg I prefer mine with cream cheese on a bagel. Thank you, very much.
I graduated from highschool in 1979. Science education was very important during the space race in the 1960s, so I saw many liquid nitrogen demonstrations while I was in grade school. We went on field trips across the border to the Toronto Science Center several times. They did liquid nitrogen demos.
I got a summer job in 1978 at the local pacemaker battery factory.
I was told the story of a previous summer hire who had taken a block of lithium about the size of a deck of cards from the factory floor and threw it in a toilet. The toilet was spewing hydrogen and the block of lithium was bouncing around energetically. This wasn’t particularly dangerous, but he panicked and flushed the toilet. The hydrogen couldn’t get out fast enough. The resulting explosion embedded porcelain shards in the plaster walls and acoustic ceiling. However the porcelain didn’t have enough energy to get through both layers of the sheet metal dividers between the stalls. Luckily, the kid was behind one of those partitions when at the moment of explosion, so he was not hurt, but he was fired.
So I was not allowed onto the factory floor by myself. Nor was I allowed to play with the liquid nitrogen on the loading dock. I did see the memo warning loading dock employees that liquid nitrogen was not to be used to freeze frogs and shatter them on the floor, or for any other “experiments”.
We had a liquid oxygen demo instead but same principle. Then the teacher was explaining things and ignored the vat and tubing until the tube exploded. I forget the explanation for that
My high school science was electric car. We made an electric car and raced it with other schools. We were all hand picked by 9th grade science teachers, I was the only girl in the class both years. So I never had any of those types of classes. Even in college I avoided it.
No liquified gases, but a buddy and I spent one 4th of July (as teenagers) learning about fun things to do with oxygen and acetylene from his dad’s cutting torch. We started with balloons but eventually worked our way up to garbage bags. We learned early on (the hard way - of course -what other way is there?) to put some water in the plastic bags to cut the static electricity before filling them. Fortunately, the flimsy plastic produced no nasty shrapnel and only limited percussion when it exploded. But really big, loud bangs!
At about 9PM, the sheriff called and said the neighbors had complained and we should stop “setting off the dynamite”. Thus ended our Independence Day fun.
@macromeh GARBAGE BAGS???
A small oxy-acetylene balloon was terrifying enough for me. We came this close to breaking all the windows on both sides of the street.
I’ll never forget the huge pane of glass directly across the street from us dancing forward & backwards in the frame. I had no idea glass could bend that far!
@blaineg Yep, garbage bags. At one point, we tried putting a “bag o’ boom” under an inverted metal container (the bottom 1/3 of a 50 gallon drum) and detonating. It blew it about 20 feet in the air and bulged the bottom. (We were standing behind a barrier a good distance from the “experiment”.
)
Amazingly, all body parts remained intact during our holiday follies.
I used to do fun with science demonstrations for local schools- usually younger than high school. We had liquid nitrogen and also ignited balloons filled with hydrogen. And we had a Van de Graaff generator. I loved that thing.
I volunteer with the local science museum now- I used to do demos but now they mostly use volunteers to keep kids from tapping on the tarantula tanks. I miss the flames.
@sammydog01
H2 balloons and a Van de Graaff?
ZzzzztBang!
Just freakin’ awesome!
MEALS! DEALS! EELS! AWESOME!
@2many2no One balloon with oxygen, one with hydrogen, and one with oxygen and hydrogen. We had to be super careful driving over from the plant.