There was an explosion...
Not sure this counts as an experiment but;

Me and a mate stole the schools entire sodium store, built a little fire from news paper and watched excitedly for a bright orange conflagration. But there was none.

The heat melted the sodium into a shining pool, but the flames kept the oxygen at bay. My mate then did something to up the excitement. He scooped a handful of water from the drainage ditch we were hiding in and threw it on the fire. I got as far as the 'N' of NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! before the water hit the molten sodium.

The result was immediate a painful. There was a big bang, and instant cloak of white smoke punctuated by thousands of orange points of light traveling very quickly.

Each of the burning balls of sodium went straight through our school uniforms an into our skin. We looked like we'd contracted instant Chicken Pox. Happy days.
( Ring Of Fire A petty, drooling belming butthurt retard., Fri 25 Jul 2008, 12:37, 5 replies)

I worked in a school
where some kids stole the entire jar of sodium and the head of science wanted to inform the police because it was such a dangerous thing to have out in the open as even moisture in the air can set it going.

Of course managment hushed it up and some kid probably chucked it in a pond to see what would happen.

I wish I could have been there.
( Peej, Fri 25 Jul 2008, 12:52, closed)

^ I suppose that's the GCSE Science equivalent
of fishing with dynamite...
(LongJohnBaldry, Fri 25 Jul 2008, 13:54, closed)

We are a bit
more careful with the school sodium these days. We keep ours in a locked cupboard in a chemical store which itself has an armoured door and only give out a bit at a time. The sodium is not quite as nasty as the potassium though.
The title for scariest school chemical would go to the sodium hydroxide granules (far more caustic than the conc acids we use, one of the few things I will actually put gloves on for) or the potassium chlorate (google for the screaming jellybaby experiment)
(Prof. Moriarty put his foot in it on, Fri 25 Jul 2008, 22:14, closed)

If you like that tale
You'll love these:

www.theodoregray.com/PeriodicTable/Stories/011.2/


:)
(Zedsquared, Sun 27 Jul 2008, 18:45, closed)

Our chemistry teacher (well one of the young and hippy ones)
told us of a story when he was a research chemist at Monsanto in Leicester as part of his PGCE. They had a store of sodium (no idea why and in retrospect I don't wan't to know) kept under oil.

He got hold of this and chopped about half a pound off the end of a cylinder of this silvery magic.

Then leant out of the window and dropped it into the Grand Union Canal next to the labs.

Cue the Bomb Squad (this was the 70's, big bad IRA time) and about 6 fire engines trying to douse this spitting piece of hell by chucking water at it.

They don't teach chemistry to firemen.
(Dr Teeth Who asked you, you fuckin' hobbit?, Mon 28 Jul 2008, 5:34, closed)