My school had a lunchtime science club
I was one of the nerdy kids who used to go - we actually had a great laugh. Many experiments dreamed up by teenage brains were conducted, including;

How many batterys can you connect to one lightbulb on a circuit board before it explodes. We got through a whole box of bulbs.

Telling an unsuspecting young man to sniff a giant flask of ammonia - "take a really really deep breath, it smells lovely". I think he may have passed out.

Mixing hydrochloric acid with magnesium ribbon. A lot of magnesium ribbon. It burned through the bottom of the test tube and into the bench below.

Lighting somethign explosive under a tin can so it went through the ceiling and into the classroom above (the teacher and her class above were very impressed).

One guy seeing how many girls he could freak out by putting disected eyeballs on the end of each finger.

Many other experiments took place within my class, like what happens if you leave fish behind a radiator for the summer holidays, or how will the drunk class bully look with his eyebrows shaved off... good times!
( TheGirlWithNoName, Fri 25 Jul 2008, 13:14, 6 replies)

Love this!
I had a similar ammonia experience once.
( Raindance Work is inversely proportional to post-count, Fri 25 Jul 2008, 13:37, closed)

I call bullshit...
...on experiments 3 and 4.

HCl + Mg = a fair bit of hydrogen and it gets rather warm to the touch, but unless you ignite a significant volume of hydrogen, it's not going to DO anything except fizz.

As for the explosive and tin can thing, no fucking way. A can is not heavy enough, or shaped correctly, to go right through a cieling that's capable of supporting people's weight from above. And lets not forget the phenomenal force you'd need to launch it with...
(keyboardman, Fri 25 Jul 2008, 22:05, closed)

I'm afraid
I have to agree with keyboardman on those.

The magnesium and acid, though exothermic would not produce anywhere near enough heat to melt a test tube. As for the can, anything powerful enough to do that would blow the can into deadly shrapnel shards long before it went through a ceiling.
(Prof. Moriarty put his foot in it on, Fri 25 Jul 2008, 23:01, closed)

Keyboardman...
The teacher actually launched the can himself, there was a hole in the ceiling for several months (the school budget wasnt up to much). Due to the cheapness of our classrooms, most were only constructed of plasterboard, hence the ease with which they got destroyed.

And as for the fizzing HCL, I am fuzzy on how we got it going, this was several years ago! I do remember the fact that the bench had missing varnish and a dent where we worked afterwards.
( TheGirlWithNoName, Sat 26 Jul 2008, 10:57, closed)

"so it went through the ceiling and into the classroom above..."
Launching the can: No problem

Hitting the cieling: Ditto

Leaving a dent/mark: Piece of piss

Going into the classroom above: Pure fiction

Even a 9mm handgun round would have trouble accomplishing that, depending on the cieling/upstairs floor construction, and they're designed to go into/through stuff. A tin can isn't! Unless you filled it with wet sand and launched it from a cannon! Then perhaps... but anyway, for the sake of being nice, agree to disagree? :-)
(keyboardman, Sat 26 Jul 2008, 13:35, closed)

Unless
You were in class with the Bash Street Kids I am afraid I'm with Keyboard and the Prof.

However I am loving the eyeball hand monster imagery!
( TGB checking Off Topic is still shit at, Tue 29 Jul 2008, 14:34, closed)