Australia's Science Forum

Hi All
I am a very safety first Labbie today we did Dry Ice experements went out on the field put son ice in a plastic bottle added a little water stood back and after a little time BOOM Happy year 7's so did it again and then one more just four fun.
Pump bottles don't work so well so I said I would leave it ( thinking all would be OK and would pop and I would get it later) and all the year 7's went back to class.
Went back 45min's later it still had not popped so very carfully carried it back to the prep room and put in in the sink turned around and BOOM the bottle went off and blow a hole in my S belnd on the sink and now I can't hear out of my right ear
Fafety First did not work.
Just think what would have happened if I was carrying it at the time

Oh no!!!!!
Poor Noona!
Hope your ear is better soon!!!
Never mind the sink. You are the important one! I am very glad too that you were not carrying it at the time!
Thinking of you
Tina

Blew a hole in the S-Bend!!!

Wow! I do this every year on Exploding Day but if they don't go off in time they stay outside and I babysit them until they do. Poor Noona. I hope your ear recovers soon.

Actually it is possible to look up how much PSI a coke bottle is built to withstand. It's a good indication of how much pressure builds up. I know that dry ice expends to 270 times its frozen volume as it sublimates.

Can I say that on the days when our Mr Filch here really annoys me I could just do that to one of our S-Bends and then just apologize profusely, just to make him do a bit of work!

We did that experiment up on the back hill.
We couldn't find any pieces of the bottle after it went off and there was a big divot in the ground.
You might want to get your hearing tested to make sure you haven't done any permanent damage. Or at least get it recorded somewhere, you should have rung GIO on the incident line just to let them know what happened in case you have problems down the line.1800 811 523
at least that is the DET procedure.

G'day Noona,
Sorry to hear about your accident and your hearing. Just listening to the radio the other day when they were talking about the loss of hearing in our younger generations because of the ipods, etc.....
The commentators gave out a phone number where you could check your hearing over the telephone. It is 1800 826 500
Hope this helps.
Maree
p.s. I hope it's just not advertising!

Several years ago we had a Chemistry teacher do something similar.

He had put the dry ice into a 600 ml coke bottle and some how it ended up in the deep ceramic sink in the teachers front bench whilst he carried on with other playing with the dry ice.

As the bottle exploded, scaring everyone in the whole block, especially the Maths staff, it also completely shattered the ceramic sink.
Due to cost it was never repaired, just covered with a piece of wood.

It was his last Chem lesson before he left for a Principals position in Inverell.
He really went out with a bang,

Incidentally, I now have a scorch mark on the ceiling of one of my newly renovated labs.
A relatively new teacher decided to demonstrate Sodium to her year 8 class and cut too big a bit. The flash hit and scorched the ceiling At least she was using the safety screen!

Wendy

Glad you are OK Noona.

Scary stuff!

Yes really glad you are OK Noona, good idea to report the incident to your SAM, just incase. Stay safe. How are your ears now, has your hearing returned??????

So glad you weren't seriously hurt but you should have your hearing checked just in case.
It must have given you such a shock.
At another school I worked at a child stole a piece of dry ice and was taking it home on the bus it a bottle when it exploded.
Luckily no one was hurt but the bus company understandably went crazy about it. Poor bus driver didn't know what had happened.
Take care Noona.
Helen

Hope all is ok now Noona.

We don't do that demo - probably a good reason not to!!
Having said that though - do you actually do an exploding day Smiley??? What do you do??

Is to keep the natural selection happening at your school?!!! Keep those little tulips in line??

Just an update off to the doctor Thursday avo to have my ear checked still a little tender and some ringing but hope all will be OK
Thanks all for all the well wishes
I am still finding bits of bottle all over the prep room

Wow that sounds so scary! Glad you're ok and hope your hearing is all better soon.

Have not had time to log on lately, but today I did and chose to open this thread first.
Noona, Noona, Noona!!!
Thank God you're OK, sweetie.
Gonna take a while to live that one down!
Glad to hear you're going to the doctor...

Kel,

Yes we Do have Exploding Day. It is the pay off for doing 5 years of Science - so it is a Yr 12 Chemistry event.

We have dry ice bombs, diet coke and mentos, H2 balloons, KMnO4 + Glycerol, flour in a coffee can, and a Pringles can candle. A lot of these are outside games, but not all. It's big fun.

If you read my previous post on this, a couple of years ago I got in trouble from the HNIC (Head Nun in Charge) because I blew up some really good dry ice bombs on the lawns here. Now it wasn't that I disturbed every class in the building, nor that I rattled the windows in a heritage listed building. NO! I had the girls on the lawns ....wait for it...without their hats!!!

O M G
NO HATS

And Quite right you should have issued hard hats all round!!!

OMG Shame on you Smiley!!!!!!! Those poor innocent children surrounded by bombs & you forgot their hats. What will their parents say when you send them home with a sunburnt head..... I'm sure they'll all just ignore the missing arm....! Having said all that rather dripping with sarcasm... we have that policy too....!

That sounds like sooooooooooooooooooooooooo much fun!!!!!!! I wanta do one!!! Mentally noting.... Do an exploding day...... Sounds like a good payoff for all those years of science too - the poor darlin's!

Noona, good luck for this afternoon. I hope it all goes well

Kel

Please explain--

flour in a coffee can
and
pringle can candle

Have heard of neither.

Oh Noona
I'm sooo glad you weren't holding it at the time. You poor thing. I hope that ringing in your ear stops soon. Let us all know what the doc says. WE'll be thinking of you.
Krysia

Rita,
Search for exploding flour or custard powder for the answer to flour in a coffee can. I would like to know about the pringle can candle also. As for the dry ice explosions we have had some very close shaves because of unexploded coke bottles. Yet I still have the occasional teacher who allows kids to handle dodgy bottles regardless of what I say. I am sometimes of two minds as to whether I should help a teacher with supervision of these demonstrations. I love the explosions though and it gives me a chance to yell at kids who insist on being stupid.
Perhaps we labbies might be able to put together some safety guidelines for handling dry ice in these types of experiments. I for one would be interested to hear if anyone out there has a safe way of handling the unexploded bottles.
Lyn.
Noona let us know the outcome of your hearing check please.