Orchid XP v7 wrote:
> John VanSickle wrote:
> 
>> [1] Yes, those of you who live near The Villages in Florida may have 
>> seen this on the news.
> 
> When I was at school, the teacher *showed* us a bottle of mercury from 
> the chemicals cupboard.
> 
> Yes, it probably shouldn't have a disintegrated cork for a lid. Still, 
> metalic mercury is quite harmless. It's the oxide you want to worry 
> about. What that...? Oh... Yes, it does oxidize quite well in air.
> 
> Apparently the school was "probably not supposed to keep this stuff any 
> more". Whatever. I was *far* more concerned by the bottle at the back 
> labelled "WARNING: Explosive when dry" containing an amorphus dry powder...

Hmmm.... No, probably not good.

I was always intrigued by the metallic canister with the yellow and 
black international symbol for radiation on it, which resided in the 
physics classroom. Apparently in the later physics classes, they get to 
play with a Geiger counter.

> We also got to watch the teacher play with some sodium in a big water 
> thank. And then us students got to play with some... magnisium ribbon. 
> (Trust me, soaking magnisium in water isn't nearly so interesting. After 
> an hour, a few bubbles had formed...)

Our chemistry teacher used to do some after school sessions. I showed up 
to more than a few. One of which was begun by him handing everyone latex 
gloves, then handing is little chunks of a grayish, soft metal. Oh, 
yeah... and there was this big bucket of water ...

Sodium is fun. XD

He also filled a huge rubber balloon with a 2:1 ratio of pure hydrogen 
and oxygen. Then took a flame to it. People on the other side of the 
school campus heard the resulting bang.

Strangely, he was reassigned to biology the next year ...

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