HPAVC/HPAVC CD-ROM.iso/pc/CHEMIST2.ZIP/CHEMIST2.TXT

Text File | 1993-11-11 | 6.9 KB | 170 lines

The Chemist's Corner
Article #2: Household chemicals
By Zaphod Beeblebrox/MPG

 This article deals with instructions on how to do some interesting
experiments with common household chemicals. Some may or may not work
depending on the concentration of certain chemicals in different areas
and brands. I would suggest that the person doing these experiments
have some knowledge of chemistry, especially for the more dangerous
experiments.
 I am not responsible for any injury or damage caused by people using
this information. It is provided for use by people knowledgable in
chemistry who are interested in such experiments and can safely handle
such experiments.

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I. A list of household chemicals and their composition

Vinegar: 3-5% acetic acid
Baking soda: sodium bicarbonate
Drain cleaners: sodium hydroxide
Sani-flush: 75% sodium bisulfate
Ammonia water: ammonium hydroxide
Citrus fruit: citric acid
Table salt: sodium chloride
Sugar: sucrose
Milk of Magnesia- magnesium hydroxide
Tincture of iodine- 47% alcohol, 4% iodine
Rubbing alcohol- 70 or 99% (depends on brand) isopropyl alcohol (DO
NOT DRINK!)

etc...


EXP #1: Ye old fizz experiment

 Mix vinegar with baking soda. It produces sodium acetate and carbonic
acid. Carbonic acid quickly decomposes into carbon dioxide and water,
resulting in the "fizz".
 This simple reaction can be contained in a small bottle or something,
and when enough pressure builds up it will break open. I sincerely
doubt that it will blow "all four walls off the house" as some loser
wrote in his Safehouse article. The same basic thing can be done with
dry ice & water, baking powder & water, citric acid & baking soda, and
many other combinations.

EXP #2: A fruity battery

 If you're ever in need of a little power, get your hands on these:

 a citrus fruit (lemon, orange, etc)
 a small zinc strip
 a small copper strip

  Just stick the zinc strip in one end of a lemon and a copper strip
in the other. You now have a 1.5 volt battery! Just attach the wires
to the copper & zinc strips...


EXP #3: Generating chlorine gas

 This is slightly more dangerous than the other two experiments, so
you should know what you're doing befove you try this...

 Ever wonder why ammonia bottles always say 'DO NOT mix with chlorine
bleach', and visa-versa? That's because if you mix ammonia water with
Ajax or something like it, it will give off chlorine gas. To capture
it, get a large bottle and put Ajax in the bottom. Then pour some
ammonia down into the bottle. Since the chlorine is heavier than air,
it will stay down in there unless you use large amounts of either Ajax
or ammonia (DON'T!). For something fun to do with chlorine stay
tuned....


EXP #4: Chlorine + turpentine

 Take a small cloth or rag and soak it in turpentine. Quickly drop it
into the bottle of chlorine. It should give off a lot of black smoke
and probably start burning...


EXP #5: Generating hydrogen gas

 To generate hydrogen, all you need is an acid and a metal that will
react with that acid. Try vinegar (acetic acid) with zinc, aluminum,
magnesium, etc. You can collect hydrogen in something if you note that
it is lighter than air.... Light a small amount and it burns with a
small *pop*.
 Another way of creating hydrogen is by the electrolysis of water.
This involves seperating water (H2O) into hydrogen and oxygen by an
electric current. To do this, you need a 6-12 volt battery, two test
tubes, a large bowl, two carbon electrodes (take them out of an
unworking 6-12 volt battery), and table salt. Dissolve the salt in a
large bowl full of water. Submerge the two test tubes in the water and
put the electrodes inside them, with the mouth of the tube aiming
down. Connect the battery to some wire going down to the electrodes.
This will work for a while, but chlorine will be generated along with
the oxygen which will undoubtedly corrode your copper wires leadino to
the carbon electrodes... (the table salt is broken up into chlorine
and sodium ions, the chlorine comes off as a gas with oxygen while
sodium reacts with the water to form sodium hydroxide....). Therefore,
if you can get your hands on some sulfuric acid, use it instead. It
will not affect the reaction other than making the water conduct
electricity.


EXP #6: Hyrdogen + chlorine

 Take the test tube of hydrogen and cover the mouth with your thumb.
Keep it inverted, and bring it near the bottle of chlorine (not one
that has reacted with turpentine). Say "goodbye test tube", and drop
it into the bottle. The hydrogen and chlorine should react and
possibly explode (depending on purity and amount of each gas). An
interesting thing about this is they will not react if it is dark and
no heat or other energy is around. When a light is turned on, enough
energy is present to cause them to react...

EXP #7: Preparation of oxygen

 Get some hydrogen peroxide (from a drug store) and manganese dioxide
(from a battery- it's a black powder). Mix the two in a bottle, and
they give off oxygen. If the bottle is stoppered, pressure will build
up and shoot it off. Try lighting a wood splint and sticking it (when
only glowing) into the bottle. The oxygen will make it burst into
flame. Experiment with it. The oxygen will allow things to burn
better...

EXP #8: Alcohol

 Buy some rubbing alcohol in a drug store. Usually this is either 70%
ov 99% alcohol and burns just great. You can soak a towel in water and
then in acohol, light the towel, and when it finishes burning the
alcohol, the flame should go out and leave the towel unharmed. Nice
for "party tricks", etc.

EXP #9: Iodine?

 Tincture of iodine contains mainly alcohol and a little iodine. To
seperate them, put the tincture of iodine in a metal lid to a bottle
and heat it over a candle. Have a stand holding another metal lid
directly over the tincture (about 4-6 inches above it) with ice on top
of it. The alcohol should evaporate, and the iodine should sublime,
but should reform iodine crystals on the cold metal lid directly
above. If this works (I haven't tried), you can use the iodine along
with household ammonia to form Nitrogen Triiodide (discussed in
article #1).

EXP #10: Grain-elevator explosion!

 Want to try your own 'grain-elevator explosion'? Get a candle and
some flour... Light the candle and put some flour in your hand. Try
various ways of getting the flour to leave your hand and become dust
right over the candle flame. The enormous surface area allows all the
tiny dust particles to burn, which they do at about the same time,
combining to form a fireball effect. In grain elevators, much the same
thing happens. If you can get your hands on some lycopodium powder,
do. This will work much better, creating huge fireballs that are
unexpected.


 That's enough for now... more to come in later Chemist's Corner
articles...

  ...Zaphod Beeblebrox/MPG!