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| Ninjalara's Chemistry Stuffups! |
| Separation of sand, salt and water. This was the first experiment we did in Chemistry this year. Naturally it went wrong. We had to separate sand, salt and water and then figure out the pecentage composition of each. You separated the sand by using filter paper. Naturally the dampness of the filter paper would contribute to the weight, therefore we had to dry it. In came the Bunsen burner! We placed the paper in an evaporating basin, which stood on top of a tripod with a Bunsen underneath. We then left it to dry. Since I attend an all girls school, it seemed only natural that we should chatter on about something while completely ignoring the experiment. When the teacher came around, he calmly said to us that we were losing matter. We looked at the experiment and found that the filter paper was on fire! Donatello's words of wisdom: Always keep a close eye on your experiments. |
| I have finally done enough mistakes in chemistry to devote a webpage to it. Disturbing, isn't it? Actually, I recently found out that there's an evil chemistry teacher at my school called Michelangelo Raphael... Yeah, that freaked me out as well. |
| Observing Chemical Change We were in the middle of a six stage experiment. Near the end of stage three, we were told to decant (pour off) the solution so that the heavier solid was remaining. We poured off half of the solid... Originally we had to weigh the contents at the end to see how much of the solid we got, but the teacher just said to state the chemical changes instead, otherwise we would have to start all over again. Lucky! Donatello's words of wisdom: Be careful when pouring solutions. |
| Reactions with water and acid. We were given seven metals. With each of them we had to observe how they reacted in water, and then how they reacted with hydrochloric acid. We got up to the acid when we realised that we had to boil each of the solutions, which meant we had to go back and redo water. Naturally we ran out of time... so we just made up the results! Donatello's words of wisdom: Always plan out your experiments first. |
| Copper Carbonate Experiment. We were smeltering copper carbonater using a corked test tube and a Bunen burner. My two workmates were too scared that they'd stuff up another chemistry experiment, so they left me to do this one all by myself. Of course, it went wrong. In order to separate the copper, we had to burn it in full flame. What you're supposed to do is tilt the test tube so that the test tube holder doesn't get in the way. What did I do? I put everything in full flame. The test tube holder caught on fire! Donatello's words of wisdom: Tilt the test tube when heating. |
| My Personal Favourite. We were heating small samples of metal in a solution, which was contained in a corked test tube. Anyway, what we were supposed to do was to heat the test tube in the middle otherwise the cork would fly off. Yet a lot of students ignored the teacher's wise words and continued to heat the test tube down the bottom. So then we were advised to at least aim the test tubes away from each other. So we aimed our experiment for the door thinking it was safe. I then saw my vice principal heading towards to chemistry lab's entrance. I joked to my friend saying that it would be funny if the cork flew off just at the right moment to hit him. I swear I'm a psychic! The cork popped off, hit the top of the door frame and rebounded down to hit the top of the vice principal's head, who was at the time standing in the doorway. He was lucky that he wasn't hit directly. Well, the news spread around the school and I was known for attempting to murder the vice principal for about a week. :o) Donatello's words of wisdom: When doing an experiment, make sure that your classmates are safe and protected, along with yourself. |
| Want more? Don't worry. I'm sure there'll be some more stuffups next term! Donatello: Lara, you are a worry. |
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