What Pointless Experiments Have You Tried in Your Life?

[redargon]

oh where oh where to start?

I made nitrogentriiodide (touch powder) in a chem class when I was about 12 or so. My friend and I wanted to take some home with us (it's such cool stuff!). I put some in my plastic pencil case and he put some in a pile on a polystyrene plate. It was wet and safe at the time of storage. On the way home my friend was holding his little tray of touch powder when we noticed that it had started to dry. We watched as a little clump rolled off the top of the pile and down the slope of the explosive cone. Needless to say, WHAMMO! My dad almost drove off the highway and the explosion resulted in non-activated (still wet) powder going everywhere and brownish/yellow spots all over the cars interior. Everytime we moved around, little pieces would explode giving that static shock sound. Luckily, my dad is a physicist and had his fair share of chem experiments go awry, so he wasn't too PO. Almost all of my stored powder dried and detonated inside my pencil box, and all my stationery was a brownish colour after that.

 

[redargon]

In terms of stupid experiments here is one, but I was just a kid, around 7 to 9, I guess.

I loved Macguyver, so I decided to blow the door off my bedroom and "bust out of my domestic prison." So, I got some plasticine (coloured putty that kids play with), which I figured was what he used (plastic explosives, putty... how's an 8 year old going to know the difference?) and stuck it all in the door hinges. Then I attached some wires. Each wire to a 1.5v battery and... nothing happened. I was of the presence of mind to increase the voltage, so I closed my eyes tight and connected the wires to a 9v battery. No result. I got bored, as kids do and went to go do something else. Only remembered about it when my mom got PO because there were multi-coloured stains all over the white door and door frame and very sticky putty wedged into the door hinges. In a way I'm actually pretty glad it didn't work

 

[redargon]

We (age 13+) found that if you fill something with lighter gas and then light it, you get a cool flame thing happening. First we would put the lighter to our closed fist, to store the gas in our hand and then simultaneously open our hand and light the gas. It kind of gave you a flame in you hand for a fraction of a second, but it was cool for impressing girls Then we started to think bigger scale. Where oh where could we stored more gas on our person? How about in your mouth? So one of my friends holds the lighter to his lips and fills his mouth with gas (stupid, stupid, stupid) and then simultaneously opens his mouth and lights the gas... burned eyebrows and a bruised ego put that one to rest for a while.

 

[redargon]

we (age 15 or so) often covered our hands in spray on deodorant and then lit them. Then sort of shake them around like a retard to try and put the flames out. It would usually last just long enough to get hot and make you really nervous, but not long enough to do any permanent damage... usually. As I am now older and wiser (older is inevitable, wiser... maybe not), I don't do that sort of thing anymore, or at least I stand next to a swimming pool if I do

 

[Fearless]

A potatocannon? lol. Do you got any good schematics I could look at? ^^

 

[Borek]

Spray flame thrower anyone? No idea about these new propane/butane propelled ones, in the time of CFC you need spray with added ethanol (mint breath refresher comes to mind, or some perfumes). Spray plus gas lighter as ignition.

Then there was the fire mushroom trick. You took dried resin from the tree trunk (conifers!), powdered it and put a little bit of powder in your palm. Then you put a lighted match between fingers and throw the powder up so that it has to go through the flame. Very impressive

 

[BobG]

My first biology experiment:
When I was a kid, my neighbor and I dumped everything we could find and fit into the "trunk" of her Big Wheels (the little plastic box on the back). That included stuff like sand, weeds, bugs, we gave it a good stir, then let it sit for a few days until her mom discovered it. Her mom made us clean it, and we had to draw straws to decide who would open the lid to dump it out. Had to hold our noses to even get close to it.

My first biology experiment was with the girl next door, who was about a year older than me and was usually the instigator of any trouble I ever got into.

We dissected a live toad when I was around 8 or 9. She had the bright idea that a little alcohol or ether would place the toad unconscious during the operation. It actually was pretty cool. You could see the heart beating and everything. Unfortunately, the patient woke up in the middle of the operation and hopped off the operating table. Not too bad until its intestines got caught on a twig and began to trail behind him. He was all the way to the sidewalk, his intestines trailing out around 3 feet behind him, with both of us chasing him by time her big brother (around 13 or 14) caught us. He got his BB gun and put the toad out of its misery - eventually. It takes a surprising number of BB's to kill a toad. It's nothing like Old Yeller. I thought he was going to kill both of us next. Holy cow! Getting caught by him was worse than getting caught by our parents. At least you could be fairly confident your own parents wouldn't actually kill you.

 

[thomasxc]

i taped a model rocket engine to a large paper airplane. and almost lost a finger. burnt off half the skin...hurt very badly for weeks.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

I had forgotten all about this one. I used to pool saliva on my tongue and then put a lighted match on it with the flame just above the pool. It freaked out the other kids pretty good.

 

[thomasxc]

i started collection spiders, just for a biology experiment. i found a really nice, and big (like almost four inches across) orb weaver, and drowned it in isopropyl alcohol. i didnt wait long enough. i got tweezers to take it out, i clamped down on a leg, and that spider jumped out of the jar and dang near bit me. and i still collect spiders.lol.