Favorite home experiments

[Macbi]

1. Find some alcohol-based liquid (alcohol will work fine, but you probably want to dilute it a bit).
2. Cover hand in said liquid.
3. Light hand on fire.
4. Wave hand to extinguish fire. (Optional)

Yes, we've all read the Feynman biographies, and no, we won't do that, because we have hair on the backs of our hands.

You forgot the first step, which is to dip your hand in water first.

Done right it doesn't burn hair, cue Ghost Rider impresions.

I want to try that instant-freezing water.

And I think it would be cool to make a pykrete variant from it.

[27b/6]

I like the following surface area demonstration. Keep a fire extinguisher handy.

Get 2 identical containers, such as small glasses. Clear works best for seeing what goes on. Get some way to cover the glasses. I like playing cards that are slightly wetted--this creates a good airtight seal. Also good idea to have a plate or other nonflammable cover handy for quenching flames.

Fill the first one almost all the way to the top with alcohol and cover. Everclear works pretty well in this demo. Then just put a thin splash in the second glass (barely cover the bottom, if at all) and cover. Let the glasses sit for a few minutes.

Now have an aim & flame, or wooden match in needlenose pliers standing buy (you do NOT want your hand directly over the glasses). Uncover the first glass and light. You should see flames, but nothing all that exciting. Extinguish.

Now uncover the second glass and light. You should see a pretty violent burning, with a satisfying "woosh!".

Although the first glass contained much more alcohol, it was in liquid form, so could only burn at the surface of the glass. In the second glass, the alcohol was able to vaporize, yielding a much greater effective surface area, so it burned much faster and more explosively.

[SkaBassist]

In a Scientific American a while ago, they had a DIY quatum eraser. Here's the link:

Quantum Awesomeness

[dragoneye1589]

Couple of favorites of mine.

Match Rockets:
You take a match and a small piece of aluminum foil and wrap it around the match using a pin to create a channel for gas to escape. You then take a paperclip and bend it so that you can rest the match on it pointing up at an angle. Then after placing the match on the paperclip use a lighter to light the match by heating the aluminum foil surrounding the head of the match. If you do it correctly you can get the match to fly across a large room.

Now for one that most couldn't and shouldn't do at home but cool.
You can take high concentration Sulfuric acid (like 10 Molar) and some table sugar, and OUTSIDE you mix them in a beaker and mix them with a glass stirring stick then stand back and let the reaction occur, you can get some very interesting carbon "towers". Don't breathe the gases emitted from the reaction though (potentially toxic).

[TomBot]

Put just a little bit of water in an empty soda can and bring it to a boil. Then quickly turn the can upside down and dip it in water. The water vapor condenses quickly enough to crush the can!

(Hmm, I've never tried this with a glass bottle - I expect it to be either underwhelming, or messy but really cool.)

[TiberiusM]

Put just a little bit of water in an empty soda can and bring it to a boil. Then quickly turn the can upside down and dip it in water. The water vapor condenses quickly enough to crush the can!

(Hmm, I've never tried this with a glass bottle - I expect it to be either underwhelming, or messy but really cool.)

Underwhelming Water just gets sucked into the bottle. But really quickly! and with a nice 'whoosh!' sound!

My personal favorite: liquid nitrogen bomb. Bonder and I were in the same group that did these things, so I'm surprised he didn't mention it. Procedure:

Obtain a quantity of liquid nitrogen, a sturdy soft-drink bottle (preferably 2-litre), and a ditch or something (for shrapnel protection). Fill the bottle as much as you can with nitrogen; wipe any frost off the neck, cap it extra-tight, and toss it into the ditch (or far away from people, at least). Walk casually in the other direction, and try not to laugh too maniacally when the blast comes.

Memorable incidents include the time we didn't think our 2-litre was actually going to explode; a quiet hissing noise was followed, about 15 seconds after it became inaudible, by the most impressive bang we ever got. For public demonstration, we usually put the bottle into a steel bucket (partly filled with water, for heat conduction), placed into a plastic garbage bin with the lid on. As a result, our campus physics building's roof has at least one trash can lid stranded on it.

Only recently have I learned of the shrapnel part. It should've made sense before, but when I was in elementary school the high school physics class demonstrated this experiment inside our class room. They set the 2-litre up on the edge of the chalkboard (at nearly eye level for a fifth grader) and had us back up about 10 feet. The resulting 'boom' and cloud of chalk dust was spectacular. So through my entire grade-school education I never thought of that experiment as dangerous. Hooray for safety measures!

[superglucose]

Alright, here's one:

Take an ordinary nine volt, and a bunch of steel wool. Like, a huge bunch... and hold one end of it (I do this with some sort of holder) and touch the connectors of the 9volt. If you've ever wondered how to light a fire in the rain, here you go! Next test, soak the steel wool, shake it off a little (so it's still wet) and try lighting it again.

the black stuff that forms on the bottom is FeO...

And of course magnetic paper... take some iron shavings and put it in a blender with some paper pulp. MAKE SURE ITS WET! Otherwise with all the free flowing electrons (I forget where they come from, actually) you might cause an explosion. I'm really not sure what causes the explosion, I'll admit that right now, but it does happen. Anyways, smooth it out into sheets of paper and you have magnetic paper! BWAHAHA!!

Kinda lame, I know.

[oxoiron]

And of course magnetic paper... take some iron shavings and put it in a blender with some paper pulp. MAKE SURE ITS WET! Otherwise with all the free flowing electrons (I forget where they come from, actually) you might cause an explosion. I'm really not sure what causes the explosion, I'll admit that right now, but it does happen. Anyways, smooth it out into sheets of paper and you have magnetic paper! BWAHAHA!!

I don't know, but I suspect the explosion comes from the heat produced by oxidizing the iron. Fe(0) is quite happy to give up three elctrons to oxygen in an exothermic process. By agitating the iron filings with the blender, you might be getting over the activation barrier. Adding shredded paper would just provide another fuel source once the reaction gets going. Using wet paper would limit the amount of free oxygen available to the iron and absorb any heat produced, thus preventing a runaway reaction.

[oxoiron]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the potassium nitrate/sugar smoke bomb.

1) Melt sugar and potassium nitrate together (3:1 ratio or 1:3, I don't remember which, but I suspect triple sugar). KEEP THE HEAT LOW!! It's probably not a bad idea to do this on a hotplate outdoors. Melt the material in an old food tin, since you will wreck whatever container you use.

2) Before the caramel cools, stick "strike on anything" matches into the material so the heads are just sticking out of the goo.

3) After it has solidified, light the matches and enjoy the smoke.

I did this several times in high school and ended my smoke bomb career by filling an entire coffee can with goo and lighting it at halftime at a football game using the steel wool/nine volt battery thing super glucose mentioned above (by packing the top of the can with steel wool and inserting wires, I was able to use the battery as an ignitor from about 20 meters away, so I was able to remain hidden in a brushy area). It made a big enough cloud that the band had to leave the field.

EDIT: I should point out that the steel wool ignites the match heads, not the bomb itself. So, if you plan on using a steel wool trigger, you still need to embed some matches.

[Master Gunner]

I did this several times in high school and ended my smoke bomb career by filling an entire coffee can with goo and lighting it at halftime at a football game using the steel wool/nine volt battery thing super glucose mentioned above (by packing the top of the can with steel wool and inserting wires, I was able to use the battery as an ignitor from about 20 meters away, so I was able to remain hidden in a brushy area). It made a big enough cloud that the band had to leave the field.

I cannot tell you how bad an idea it was to let me find out about this, now if you'll excuse me, I have some preparations to make.....

[po2141]

Match Rockets:
You take a match and a small piece of aluminum foil and wrap it around the match using a pin to create a channel for gas to escape. You then take a paperclip and bend it so that you can rest the match on it pointing up at an angle. Then after placing the match on the paperclip use a lighter to light the match by heating the aluminum foil surrounding the head of the match. If you do it correctly you can get the match to fly across a large room.

I have been looking for a new party-trick, i shall adopt this one. Mainly because it dosn't require industrial chemicals, or too much fire. And it sounds cool.

[Dark Ragnarok]

I forgot the process name, but running a current through water to produce hydrogen gas. While doing this holding an upside down bowl above the water to contain the gas over a period of several hours. And then pull out a lighter, and get ready to light it at the exact moment you turn the bowl upside up.


And... diet coke mentos bottle rockets. One that results in flying over houses, and injuring your arm. XD.

[evilbeanfiend]

that would be electrolysis if i'm not mistaken. you can get all sorts of other fun things that way too e.g. chlorine - then burn the one in the other and dissolve to make hydrochloric acid

[Fuller]

Exploding Paste (ass seen on UK tv show Brainiac:)

First of all, you need only two ingredients: Iodine crystals and Ammonium Hydroxide.
You can get the iodine at pharmacies (you may have to sign for it).
If you work in a lab of somekind (like me) you can get hold of Ammonium Hydroxide quite easily, but I recommend diluting it down to about 1 or 2 molar. Even if you can get pure ammonium hydroxide, you probably don't want it - it's purity affects the strength of the explosive, and you don't want the result to be blowing the wall of your house off.
Very strong household ammonia water will do OK, but it must be clear - if it's cloudy, it won't work.

OK, now we're on to the making.
1. It's a good idea to crush up the iodine crystals - this will make them react faster. CAUTION - Iodine gives off quite a pungeant odour and it probably isnt very good for you to breathe it in so do this with plenty of ventilation.
2. Put two tablespoons of the crystals into a glass or pyrex container that will hold at least 500ml..
3. Now add about 100ml of the ammonium hydroxide. You should always add a little more than you need here - if you add too much, it won't affect the outcome, but if you add too little, it will be incomplete.
4. You want to stir the mixture for about ten minutes. If all goes to plan, you should see some bubbles of Hydrogen being given off. When these bubbles stop, the reaction is over.
5. Leave your mixture for about 5 minutes to make sure everything's completely done, and you should see some stuff at the bottom of your container. This is your paste, which can be separated by pouring the whole lot through filter paper. Don't worry about damaging your funnel - the liquid you're getting rid of is just water now.
6. The paste should dry after about an hour, so if you want to keep it, store it with a little water (to keep it damp) in an airtight tin. The paste is very volatile when dry, but stable in water.
7. Remember, if you store it too long, it will decompose!
OK, that's it

Paint the paste onto a surface and wait for it to dry, it should then be touch sensitive and will give off a *snap* when touched. Depending on the concentration of ammonia and how much you use, the explosion will vary from small cracker snap to fairly meaty bang. I use this for two things:

1) Paint a blob about 3 - 4cm diameter onto the inside bottom corner of a door frame and close the door. When dried, the paste will bang when someone opens the door. I do it at bottom corner to avoid any explosions happening at face level, to be safe.

2) Place some jam or other sweet sugary food on a window ledge and paint some paste ontop of it. Wait for a wasp to come along and feed off the food...yes! It's that sensitive! Bang! Revenge on wasps!

[brodieboy255]

^^ year 12s at school whipped some of that up in chemistry one time and spread it all over the stairs, handrails and doorknobs. Caused a lot of surprised reactions from people

1) Melt sugar and potassium nitrate together (3:1 ratio or 1:3, I don't remember which, but I suspect triple sugar). KEEP THE HEAT LOW!! It's probably not a bad idea to do this on a hotplate outdoors. Melt the material in an old food tin, since you will wreck whatever container you use.

Most recipes I've seen use 3:2 KNO3 to sugar

Another good one is soaking some tissue paper in 5:4 Nitric Acid to Sulfuric Acid mixture. Wait till it dries, then light it and drop it. It usually vaporizes before it hits the ground

[Fuller]

Yeah, the smoke bomb thing is definatly More KNO3 than sugar. It works without heating it up too, but doesnt last as long or produce as much smoke.

And the Nitric / Sulphuric acid mixture? That's one step off nitro glycerine! Just add Glycerol and you're left with a very unstable substance. I dont know the correct ratios though, but do know that if you ever make this stuff, id recommend doing it in winter in a field of snow or something as its pretty reactive to heat.

I forgot to mention another simple one:
Sodium Chlorate (Chlorate, not chloride weedkiller, dissolved to saturation in water and then soak it into tissue paper. Make sure you dont get the boring stuff with flame retardant in it. Let the tisue paper dry and you have another quick burning substance. I recommend carefully stuffing the dried tissue paper into a Pringles crisp tub and drilling a small hole into the bottom big enough to poke a match through. Place empty beer can into pringles tub and light the tissue paper through the hole...poof!! Home made mortar

The above also works by substituting the sodium chlorate tissue paper with a small capful of lighter fluid (10ml or so) it wont work with loads as the fluid needs to vaporise int the tub to work, so less is better in this case. Try substituting the beer can for a tennis ball too, it fits a big more snug allowing less gas to escape out of the sides.

[Pesto]

Although the first glass contained much more alcohol, it was in liquid form, so could only burn at the surface of the glass. In the second glass, the alcohol was able to vaporize, yielding a much greater effective surface area, so it burned much faster and more explosively.

I would do this with bottles. I would put a small amount of rubbing alcohol in a bottle, swirl it to let it evaporate, then light it with a match. With the right bottle, you can get it to make a pitch, as if you were blowing across the mouth of the bottle. You also get this neat little blow torch effect because the flame is being directed by the bottle neck.

[sgt york]

My kids love home science, so I read this thread with GREAT interest. Unfortunately, with a few notable exceptions, these seem to concentrate on blowing stuff up. A laudable goal, but not good as demonstrations for 5 year old boys....I want grandkids someday. So, here are some of my kids favorites:

A few fun ones you can do with household stuff:

1) Extract DNA at home. Fun party trick; most people will have these things in their home
Materials:
-1 strawberry
-some liquid soap
-a coffee filter
-some meat tenderizer
-some isopropyl alcohol (first aid kit stuff)
-Two small cups
-a fork

Method:
-Put the strawberry in a cup and squish it up with the fork. It's easiest if you cut the crown off first.
-Sprinkle a small quantity of meat tenderizer on it
-add a small quantity of soap
-NOTE : Small quantity = about as small of an ammount as you can manage manually.
-Let stand ~2-3 minutes
-Put coffee filter over 2nd cup
-Dump strawberry goo on filter and sqeeze the juice into the cup. Throw out the pulp left behind in the filter.
-Add ~2-3 volumes of isopropyl alcohol
-Mix with fork
-White stringy stuff will appear and slowly precipitate into an off white stringy mass. This is DNA.
-You can redissolve it in water if you want; if you use a small volume it makes a viscous solution.

Strawberries work best b/c they are octoploid. LOTS of DNA in them. Put you can also use most other easily squishable fruits.

I love doing this one for my kids' friends, but I occasionally get a parent that absolutely freaks. They act like DNA is plutonium or something. If you have someone freak out, remind them that they would have happily eaten that strawberry, complete with its DNA, prior to you manipulations. The addition of soap and alcohol made the stuff infinitely more harmful.

2) Can crush
MATERIALS
-Soda can
-A little water
-A heat source (stove, burner, fire, whatever)
-A bowl of ice water
-Tongs (or asbestos hands)

-Put a little water in the bottom of the can. 2-3cm in the bottom is adequate
-Use the tongs to hold it over the heat source until it starts boiling.
-QUICKLY turn the can over and dunk the top 4-5cm in the icewater. Make sure the entire opening is submerged, and try not to fling boiling water around the room.


The rapid change in temperature causes a dramatic drop in air pressure in the can, causing it to collapse. You will also draw a good bit of water into the can.


3) Eggs & buoyancy
MATERIALS
-1 egg
-some table salt
-some water
-a glass
-somethign to stir with

METHODS
-Put egg in glass of water. It sinks
-Dump salt in water, stir
-egg will float due to increased density of water

4) Egg shells
MATERIALS
-1 egg
-vinegar
-glass

METHOD
-put egg in glass of vinegar overnight

The eggshell will dissolve in the vinegar, leaving behind a membrane. Cool way to make a rubber egg.

Note to people wanting to supercool and insta-freeze water: Salt helps with this.

[A'Tuin]

1]Earth bunson burner

2]Charge body with Van de graff

3]Ask friend to turn on gas

4]yell 'Ha IM THOR GOD OF THUNDER'

5]Earth body though bunson burner, red hot spark ignites gas

[scowdich]

6) Plume of blue-hot methane burns through hand

[bonder]

This one is really cool and easy to do: homopolar motor. All you need to build one is a AA battery, a neodymium magnet (disc, about the diameter of the battery), and some copper wire. It's probably easiest to see the construction in this 1 minute youtube video.

How it works: near where the wires contact the magnet, the magnetic field is pointing vertically, and once the circuit is complete, the current is flowing through the wire horizontally (orthogonal to the magnetic field). We get a force on the wire from the current moving in the magnetic field: F = Il x B. Note the force is orthogonal to both the current and the magnetic field, hence the wires spin. This is called a homopolar motor because the magnetic field never changes polarity during use. If you want to make the motor spin in the opposite direction, just turn your magnet upside down (reverse the direction of the field).

note: the F = Il x B is only for a uniform magnetic field and constant current, which we won't have here (the current isn't always orthogonal to the magnetic field, and the magnetic field won't be uniform over the length of the wire). To calculate the actual foce, we'd have to get a function for the magnetic field B(r,z) (in cylindrical coordinates, and the field should not have any angular dependence). Then we'd have to compute the integral (evaluated over the whole wire) F = /int (Idl x B(r,z)).

Edit: typos and to point out that the x's in the equations stand for cross product, not variables.

[Geekthras]

This one is really cool, but tricky. Ideally you need a smooth-sided bottle of very pure, fizzy water (I've got it to work with a bottle of Sprite in the past). Anyway, chill your fizzy liquid down to just above freezing; something like 1-2 degrees C should be fine.

When you open the bottle, bubbles will form as normal with two effects. Firstly, the expanding gas will help cool the liquid further, taking some parts of the liquid below 0 degrees. Secondly, the bubbles act as nucleation sites for the formation of ice crystals. Result: when you open the bottle lid, the whole thing freezes solid within a few seconds. You see a small core of ice forming, then corkscrewing out to spread the length and breadth of the bottle.

In principle, you should be able to take very pure water in a smooth-sided vessel down to a few degrees below zero without any ice forming. This is becasue ice crystals can't easily form unless they have some irregularity to act as a seed / mucleation site. If you then introduce a suitable irregularity - drop in a grain of sand, or tap the glass to create small vortices - the ice will form around it and, again, the whole thing will freeze solid in seconds. It's tricky though, because the water needs to be very clean and in an almost perfectly smooth vessel.

I did that in a hotel a couple times... If you take the bottled water there and don't open it, it can sometimes work. Very tricky though.
I managed to get it so I could shake a bottle and reliably turn it to ice.
Once I tried pouring a bottle out and it started solidifying when it hit the sink and I ended up with this awesome tower of ice.
Also, I tried drinking it because I didn't realize it was superchilled. It was very odd feeling, since it was water and turned to slush in my mouth.

Anyway, Match rockets are fun, as long as they don't spurt like an inch and land on your hand.
If you go vacationing, you can demonstrate air pressure.
I live in winful MA, and went out to Yellowstone. While I was there, I took an empty bottle of water and put the cap on, then took it home. When I got there, it was completely crumpled by air pressure.

Na+H₂O is fun.

[Govalant]

Na+H₂O is fun.

Yeah it's really cool, but I want to see white phosphorus now

[jaap]

This one is really cool and easy to do: homopolar motor.

In that version it is the wire that spins. There is also a version called the Maxwell Motor which has the magnet spinning. The only extra equipment is a nail or screw, and optionally a paperclip. It is best if the magnet is more cylindrical rather than a flat disc, but the poles should still be the flat sides.

You can see a picture halfway down this page:
http://www.maa.org/editorial/mathgames/mathgames_04_10_06.html

Put the magnet on the screw head, and hang this from one end of the battery by the screw tip. The magnet causes the screw/nail to be magnetic enough for its tip to stick to the battery, and it can rotate with very little friction.
Connect a wire to the top end of the battery, and touch the side of the magnet with the other end of the wire. The magnet should start to spin quite fast.

Optionally stick a paperclip to the bottom of the magnet so that the spin is more visible.

This one is a bit more tricky to explain than the one you showed. At first I thought a force was generated on the wire, and the reaction force caused the magnet to spin. I now think that force is negligible, and it is only the small part of the circuit that lies within the magnet that is generating the force.

[A'Tuin]

6) Plume of blue-hot methane burns through hand

no even on a roaring flame its still cool enough to put you hand in for a few seconds, i did this recently at a 'Come do physics'open day about 20 times and my finger only got sligltly burnt once.

[Guybrush]

1. Find some alcohol-based liquid (alcohol will work fine, but you probably want to dilute it a bit).
2. Cover hand in said liquid.
3. Light hand on fire.
4. Wave hand to extinguish fire. (Optional)

I've done that before.
I have really thick skin on the heel of my foot, so I poured perfume over that and lit it on fire.
It was pretty cool.

[oxoiron]

That must be some pretty heavenly perfume!

[thecommabandit]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the potassium nitrate/sugar smoke bomb.

1) Melt sugar and potassium nitrate together (3:1 ratio or 1:3, I don't remember which, but I suspect triple sugar). KEEP THE HEAT LOW!! It's probably not a bad idea to do this on a hotplate outdoors. Melt the material in an old food tin, since you will wreck whatever container you use.

2) Before the caramel cools, stick "strike on anything" matches into the material so the heads are just sticking out of the goo.

3) After it has solidified, light the matches and enjoy the smoke.

I did this several times in high school and ended my smoke bomb career by filling an entire coffee can with goo and lighting it at halftime at a football game using the steel wool/nine volt battery thing super glucose mentioned above (by packing the top of the can with steel wool and inserting wires, I was able to use the battery as an ignitor from about 20 meters away, so I was able to remain hidden in a brushy area). It made a big enough cloud that the band had to leave the field.

EDIT: I should point out that the steel wool ignites the match heads, not the bomb itself. So, if you plan on using a steel wool trigger, you still need to embed some matches.

I'm just wondering - how would one obtain potassium nitrate (apart from distilling urine)? The possibly easiest way I can think of is dropping a chunk of potassium in some nitric acid, but would that make any potassium (hydr)oxide from the water? Just wondering since this could work as a great prank at my school, and I could probably convince my chemistry teacher to 'lose' some nitric acid and potassium for a good cause.

I've been trying to work some equations (I seem to have forgotten most of my acids and bases stuff from year 11), and the 2K + 2HNO³ -> 2KNO³ + H² (I can't find any subscripts so I've made do with supers) equation is easily balanced, I can't figure out one with potassium hydroxide instead of nitrate. I'm hoping that means nitric acid + potassium = smoke bomb...

(and wikipedia claims that the ratio of sucrose to potash is 40:60, respectively. I'm just wondering why they haven't simplified it to 2:3 =/)

[oxoiron]

When I was a kid, I just went to the hardware store and bought some. I can't see any reason they would have stopped selling it. It's pretty innocuous stuff. It isn't on any of the DHS lists I keep receiving asking if I have any restricted chemicals.

SAFETY NOTE: Make sure that you don't light it in an area that will make people panic thinking there is a fire. I was planning on lighting one under the bleachers, but even at 15, my little voice said that might cause some serious problems.

[thecommabandit]

Well I don't know of any hardware stores in my area. Or anywhere at all really. Well, maybe one but it'd be far easier to make some. Just by happenstance, today in my chemistry lesson we were making precipitates, and turn out lead nitrate and potassium iodide can make it, just need to filter out the lead iodide and evaporate the water. Smoke bomb here I come!

[Minerva]

I've been trying to work some equations (I seem to have forgotten most of my acids and bases stuff from year 11), and the 2K + 2HNO³ -> 2KNO³ + H² (I can't find any subscripts so I've made do with supers) equation is easily balanced, I can't figure out one with potassium hydroxide instead of nitrate. I'm hoping that means nitric acid + potassium = smoke bomb...

(and wikipedia claims that the ratio of sucrose to potash is 40:60, respectively. I'm just wondering why they haven't simplified it to 2:3 =/)

Hehe. Consider the following reaction:

K (_metal) + HNO₃ --> [products] + BANG.

K metal is not something you play with unless you know what you're doing.

When I was a kid, I just went to the hardware store and bought some. I can't see any reason they would have stopped selling it. It's pretty innocuous stuff. It isn't on any of the DHS lists I keep receiving asking if I have any restricted chemicals.

SAFETY NOTE: Make sure that you don't light it in an area that will make people panic thinking there is a fire. I was planning on lighting one under the bleachers, but even at 15, my little voice said that might cause some serious problems.

It's an inorganic nitrate, an oxidiser, and as many of you will know, an important constituent of black power and pyrotechnical compositions.

It's not useful for anything that's a particularly powerful or dangerous explosive, but due to it's pyrotechnic use it's naively familiar as "Gee Willikers BOMB MAKING CHEMICAL".

Just out of curiosity, what exactly are the chemicals on the list that DHS considers restricted?

[Vitamin_A]

Well, I was thinking of doing the KNO3 smoke bomb thing too, and I did some research, and found that any garden centre (ie. Home Depot garden centre), sells KNO3 as fertilizer, because it stimulates plant growth, saltpetre, from what I've read, is pretty concentrated in KNO3, and some fertilizers use KNO3.

And my experiment, is really dangerous
Basically, if you dissolve Styrofoam in gasoline, you make a highly-flammable, viscous napalm-like substance. The gasoline has to be saturated with Styrofoam for the best result.
I wouldn't recommend lighting it near flammable substances, children, animals, yourself, etc.

[oxoiron]

Just out of curiosity, what exactly are the chemicals on the list that DHS considers restricted?

I don't have a list in front of me right now, but it contains hundreds of chemicals, some of them pretty bad stuff and some of them not. It contains maximum amounts you can have without having to report them. Some of these amounts are laughably large (e.g. 5 tons) and some are laughably small (e.g. 5 mg). Also, it is certainly not comprehensive, since there are some things that are pretty bad that aren't included. The people I work with and I were trying to figure out how some things ended up on the list. We decided some goober at DHS asked a group of chemists to name things that could be used to hurt people, and then included everything they could think of, even the insane amounts needed to do any real damage. I imagine it went something like this:

Scientist (distracted from her real work): I suppose if somebody could somehow get their hands on and aerosolize 1000 liters of chemical X and spread it over a heavily populated area, a lot of people would suffer skin problems...

Goober from DHS (excited and self-important): We'd better tell everyone who has more than 1000 liters of chemical X to report it to us!

Scientist (calm and rational): That seems kind of pointless. It doesn't cause permanent damage, it would be almost impossible to aerosolize, it's extremely difficult to make in large quantities and there can't be more than 2 or 3 companies in the world that have more than 1000 liters available. Besides, what are you going to do about it if they report it?

Goober from DHS (accusing and suspicious): Hey! I don't tell you how to do your job!

Scientist (muttering under her breath): It's starting to feel like you do.

[po2141]

Hehe. Consider the following reaction:

K (_metal) + HNO₃ --> [products] + BANG.

K metal is not something you play with unless you know what you're doing.

Agreed! Just adding K(s) to water will cause flames and molten metal to be spat around, adding it to HNO3 will certainly result in a much faster/more energetic reaction! Plus any KNO3 that you made would either be vapour or be sprayed around by the exploding metal making it hard to retrieve....

Also, I cant remember whether I saw it on youtube or on TV or even linked from this site somewhere, but in case noone has heard, i definitely have seen footage of a guy salting his popcorn by blowing chlorine gas onto molten sodium, this caused (an extremely dangerous and violent reaction) sodium chloride vapour to condense directly on his popcorn. Unfortunately the net holding the popcorn caught fire and melted, dumping the popcorn into the molten sodium/chlorine crucible, spitting metal and fire everywhere... not exactly a home experiment.

I also saw a video at school ages ago of some scientists making Ceasium Fluoride. Suffice to say they did it from about 100m away and in a very small amount, something like a glass vial being crushed by a wire or whatever, but it just exploded.

[Robin S]

I cant remember whether I saw it on youtube or on TV or even linked from this site somewhere, but in case noone has heard, i definitely have seen footage of a guy salting his popcorn by blowing chlorine gas onto molten sodium, this caused (an extremely dangerous and violent reaction) sodium chloride vapour to condense directly on his popcorn. Unfortunately the net holding the popcorn caught fire and melted, dumping the popcorn into the molten sodium/chlorine crucible, spitting metal and fire everywhere... not exactly a home experiment.

You are probably referring to this.

I also saw a video at school ages ago of some scientists making Ceasium Fluoride. Suffice to say they did it from about 100m away and in a very small amount, something like a glass vial being crushed by a wire or whatever, but it just exploded.

If you are thinking of this, it was faked.

[EdgarJPublius]

VERY DANGEROUS. DO NOT TRY. I MEAN IT.


Anyway: Mercury Fulminate, this stuff is unbelievably fun and even more dangerous than it is fun.

What it is: Dangerous, also, a friction sensitive primary explosive.

How to make it(don't):
Take some Mercury and nitric acid (these are fairly easy to obtain in easily sufficient quantities) Dissolve the one in the other and then add ethyl alcohol.

What you can do with it (but shouldn't try to):

Very similar to the explosive paste, but easier to make and much more dangerous, the mixture can be spread around while still wet and then becomes a contact sensitive explosive, a fun prank is to mix a few ounces (enough that the police won't find a body if you make a mistake) with lots of water and mop it over a floor (lots of floor, like a school cafeteria), the next morning, people coming in will be surprised by the snap crackle and pop (they could also be surprised by a deafening kaboom, or death if too much is used for the floor area, small amounts of Mercury Fulminate yield big fun).

TIPS:
The trick is, that while its wet, it's not (very) dangerous, but when it dries, it is very (very, very) dangerous, seriously, if you mix enough, then just allowing it to dry could cause it to explode and just about any amount you would reasonably mix will kill you for your trouble. Mercury Fulminate has a well deserved reputation for killing home-brew pyrotechnicians due to the ease with which it is made and then subsequently accidentally detonated with enough force to level a small building.

To re-iterate; Once its dry, if its not where you want it, too bad, its going to be there a while (until it explodes). when making, take the smallest amount you think will do what you want, then mix up less than that in four or five batches (or more) and then pour immediately in water to be mopped/spread/what-have-you over as large a surface as you can find to do so.

If you just like explosions, mix some (very little) in a disposable container and leave it out in the open far away from anything, as it dries, it will explode, do this a few times before doing anything else so you get an idea of just how dangerous it is, then never mix any again.

This is easily the most dangerous experiment that will be listed here (short of actually jumping off a cliff or just shooting yourself in the head) but can also be explosively fun if you take proper safety precautions.

on second thought, I'd like our friends at DHS to know that this account cannot be traced back to me via the magic of anonymous, international proxying (and other security measures kept intentionally obscure), feel free to go after the explosive paste and Napalm guys though, they're crazy.

[Robin S]

Favourite home experiments

VERY DANGEROUS. DO NOT TRY. I MEAN IT.

...

[EdgarJPublius]

Favourite home experiments

VERY DANGEROUS. DO NOT TRY. I MEAN IT.

...

it's dangerous, but I wouldn't seriously suggest not trying it if you feel comfortable working with the other explosive related experiments herein(just remember to use very small quantities and don't let it dry plzkthx)

(Personally, I think some of these should have more and more obvious warnings with them as well.)

[thatguy]

Cs + H₂0 Would be fun but alas I can only find Cs-137 which is radioactive.

KNO₃

United Nuclear is alot of fun.

[sigsfried]

Take a grape cut it down the middle leaving a little bit of skin connecting two hlaves put in a microwave watch the current arc coming of the microwave.