Chemistry lessons
Empirical evidence suggests that bunsen flames are hotter than 100oC, and getting boiling mercury all over the desk gets you belted round the head and sent home.
(davywavy, Mon 28 Jul 2008, 14:02, 5 replies)

You know the trick where you flick your finger quickly through a candle flame?
I recall someone attempting that with a bunsen flame on its hottest setting. Suffice it to say that it doesn't work as well as with a candle.
( benryves Now I'm radioactive! That can't be good!, Mon 28 Jul 2008, 14:04, closed)

Oh, Bunsen burners
Why do we trust 13-year-olds with Bunsen burners?

(Un)fortunately, my school Science lessons were amazingly well-supervised, so we never got up to any of these japes.
( Thinker, Mon 28 Jul 2008, 14:07, closed)

Not these days
Getting boiling mercury over the desk gets the building evacuated.
(Prof. Moriarty put his foot in it on, Mon 28 Jul 2008, 14:35, closed)

@Prof moriarty
It's political correctness gone mad, I tell you!
(davywavy, Mon 28 Jul 2008, 14:50, closed)

I remember
a science lesson at school. we were heating an acid (hydrochloric or sulphuric, I forget which) to 70 degrees C with a bunsen burner.

however, my friend Ian and I had inadvertantly picked up a thermometer that had a different scale on it and didn't notice until the acid was bubbling away at a furious temperature of several hundred degrees...

we kept that one quiet.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Mon 28 Jul 2008, 15:15, closed)