Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Richard M. Renneboog, post: 2856177, member: 89693&quot;]My favourite laboratory tale involves acetone, the six-year-old son of an Indian post-doc, and a handful of styrofoam packing peanuts. The little guy was looking kind of lost after a while, parked on a high stool by one of the benches. So, I took a squeeze-bottle of acetone and one of water, and a few styrofoam peanuts. I put one of the peanuts on the bench in front of him and squirted a little acetone on it, making it promptly disappear. Then I dropped another one in front of him and handed him the squeeze-bottle of water. He squirted it, and of course nothing happened, so he squirted it again, and again, looking more and more perplexed. Still nothing, so I gave it a little shot of acetone, and it disappeared. He was amazed. Being a bit of a joker, I then gave a little shot of acetone on his bare leg. Well, he got the most disgusted look on his face, hopped down from the stool and started to walk over to the sink to get a paper towel to clean it off. His dad, who had been watching this all with some amusement, asked him what was wrong. Still disgusted, the little guy said that I squirted him. His dad asked him where, so he turned around and stuck his leg out to show him. Of course, by this time the acetone had completely evaporated away. You wouldn&#039;t believe how big the little guy&#039;s eyes got when he couldn&#039;t find that wet spot on his leg anymore.</p><p>If you are going to use acetone, though, take a lesson from this tale: it is very, very volatile. It has a pungent smell, but your nose very quickly becomes used to it. The vapours are both highly flammable and somewhat narcotic (they can put you to sleep). So, good ventilation and no open flames or spark sources, okay?[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in