The experiment that ended with a BANG!
"When the smoke cleared, there was the duck, with his back to us, swimming rather crookedly away from us."
One of the fun experiments I have used when teaching chemistry involves the element sodium. Sodium is a very unstable element and to illustrate its volitility I would take a small piece of sodium, drop it into a bowl of water, and the students could watch it curl into a ball, run around the top of the water and at the end go "pop." As a special treat I would load them into the school's 15 passenger van, go to a local lake and throw a chunk of sodium into the water so they could see the violent reaction that usually ended in a "BIG BANG." Well, as we approached the usual place for the experiment I noticed the lake level was low and we needed to find a new place to do the experiment. The new place had some fairly tame ducks that would swim toward people expecting to be thrown some food. As they approached us I figured I could throw the sodium far enough that it would be no problem. I reared back and launched the sodium with all my might. Little did I know the fastest duck on the planet was part of the group. As I launched the sodium the duck took off like a jet after what he thought was food. As the sodium hit the water, the duck bit down on the sodium, submerging it totally under the water. BANG went the sodium. The explosion emitted a cloud of smoke that completely covered the duck. The only thing I could think was, "Oh, no, I just blew the head off that duck." When the smoke cleared, there was the duck, with his back to us, swimming rather crookedly away. I was relieved that it still had its head. However, as it turned to the right one could see half of its bottom beak dangling from the rest. The girls responded, "Mr. Melvin, you've killed the duck!" The boys replied, "Cool. Let's do that again!" I thought, "This can't be good!"
Immediately upon arriving back at school I sent out a letter explaining the situation and offering counseling to any student who might have been traumetized. I only received one phone call in response to the letter. When I answered the phone all I heard was, "Quack, quack, quack." The next morning, as I was getting out of the van, from accross the parking lot I heard, "Quack, quack, quack."
Comments