No – the objective is not to blow things up. The fossils I deal with have survived intact for 380 million years. It would be rather irresponsible of me to destroy them.
The only time I blew up something was in high school Chemistry. It was fun (not only watching it blow up but also the process of getting there). The project was to create a balloon to lift and carry a certain weight (each group was given a different weight). Here we reacted acids with metals to create hydrogen and metal salt. We had to calculate how much acid and metal we needed. As the reaction generates heat, we need to design and build a container that keeps the reaction cool that is filled with water and ice (so we need to calculate how much ice we need). The school provided the acid solution, bag and weight while we have to come up with the reaction vessel and metal to react (lots of hunting down soft-drink cans and using sandpaper to remove the coating to get aluminimum).
At the end, the reaction is actually carried out in a large field and the weights attached to the balloon to see if your group did everything right. There was chemistry, physics and a bit of engineering involved. When everybody was finished, all of the balloons were tied down together and our best track athlete (for javelin) for our grade was given the task of throwing a javelin with a fire on the tip at the balloons. Boom!
When I’m in the lab, I try really hard not to blow things up. That’s not what you want in a biology lab, we leave that sort of thing for the chemists.
There was one time when I was working late in the lab and managed to set a beaker full of ethanol on fire. It didn’t explode, but regardless, it was not fun. (Luckily I had paid attention during safety training and knew where the fire blanket was!)
No – the objective is not to blow things up. The fossils I deal with have survived intact for 380 million years. It would be rather irresponsible of me to destroy them.
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The only time I blew up something was in high school Chemistry. It was fun (not only watching it blow up but also the process of getting there). The project was to create a balloon to lift and carry a certain weight (each group was given a different weight). Here we reacted acids with metals to create hydrogen and metal salt. We had to calculate how much acid and metal we needed. As the reaction generates heat, we need to design and build a container that keeps the reaction cool that is filled with water and ice (so we need to calculate how much ice we need). The school provided the acid solution, bag and weight while we have to come up with the reaction vessel and metal to react (lots of hunting down soft-drink cans and using sandpaper to remove the coating to get aluminimum).
At the end, the reaction is actually carried out in a large field and the weights attached to the balloon to see if your group did everything right. There was chemistry, physics and a bit of engineering involved. When everybody was finished, all of the balloons were tied down together and our best track athlete (for javelin) for our grade was given the task of throwing a javelin with a fire on the tip at the balloons. Boom!
Now at work, we don’t aim to blow things up.
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I get to watch things blow up all the time. I look for stars that have exploded (called supernova) and watch them explode. Its really cool.
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I’ve never blown anything up, either on purpose or on accident. Brad is the lucky one!
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When I’m in the lab, I try really hard not to blow things up. That’s not what you want in a biology lab, we leave that sort of thing for the chemists.
There was one time when I was working late in the lab and managed to set a beaker full of ethanol on fire. It didn’t explode, but regardless, it was not fun. (Luckily I had paid attention during safety training and knew where the fire blanket was!)
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