Finally experienced my first ever science experiment explosion! I've always thought that the experiments we do here in Malaysia would just be watching the pendulum bob swing or seeing blue litmus paper turn red, or vice versa, or at least till we've reached Form 4 to encounter cool (by cool, I mean explosions. yes i know my very twisted definition of cool) experiments.
Anyways, I wish I could have seen the explosion with my own eyes (it happened RIGHT behind me, I'm not even joking!), but I could only see the aftermath of the explosion (it was Syahmee's group). We had 4 experiments today, but I'm just going to jumped to the 3rd experiment when the explosion happened. The experiment was supposed to be heating up calcium
something-xide and channeling the gas released to a test tube of limewater (which is supposed to turn chalky).
I was busy holding the boiling tube while waiting for the limewater to turn chalky, when I suddenly heard a loud balloon bursting sort of noise, and turned around, seeing Syahmee with his hands up in the air and white splatters all. over. his. face. It took me awhile to register what was happening, but soon I realized there were white splatters all over the floor, the opposite table (which also means their books were splatter-fied), and so much steam coming out from their boiling tube. In the midst of all the commotion, another group's (Qayyum's group) boiling tube also went POP but their's didn't explode, just lots of steam coming out. All of the sudden, my hand sort of froze when I realized that the boiling tube I was holding might explode too (but it didn't in the end).
This. is a day to remember. :)
-Karlynn.