[ExI] a very silly story

[Rafal Smigrodzki]

On Sat, May 28, 2011 at 6:14 AM, Anders Sandberg <anders at aleph.se> wrote:

> While the compound is cool in its fragility, I never really got into it.
> Especially after a crazy friend filled a whole test tube with iodine and
> concentrated ammonia, corked it and left it behind in a rack. It stood there
> for weeks, nobody daring to touch it. One evening I turned around and he
> stood there with a maniac grin and the Test Tube of Doom in his hand. He
> walked out of the building and threw it... it broke, nothing happened. We
> waited. Nothing. He threw rocks at the little pile of purple goo... nothing.
> A few spots around it banged properly when stepped on. We went back in, and
> then there was a loud bang...

### Yeah, you need to let it dry a bit, which makes application to
various places safe and easy - essentially, it's an explosive you
manufacture with a built-in time-delay fuse. A milligram is enough to
greatly startle most non-chemistry teachers :)


>
> Another lovely reaction is making chlorine septoxide by dripping
> concentrated sulphuric acid on potassium chlorate. Orange-colored heavy gas
> that explodes when it reaches critical volume, splattering
> chlorate/sulphuric acid droplets everywhere. Yay!

### Need to give this one a try!

Talking about gases and vapors, how do you like to light mercury
thiocyanate on fire? Even a small crystal will produce a long, snaking
piece of mercury oxides, and a larger amount will look like a writhing
nest of snakes. Mercury vapors that released here are not as poisonous
as organic mercury compounds which is why I am still alive.

Rafal