Waste Disposal, The Old-Fashioned Way

[lederhosen]

What do you do when you've got twenty thousands pounds of surplus metallic sodium?

Drop it into a lake, of course!

Comments

[mr-figgy.livejournal.com]

Rolling downhill>>>>>>>>>BOOM

[thette.livejournal.com]

Ouch!

Have I told you about the sodium festival? I think I have.

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

Don't think so, and it doesn't sound like the sort of thing I'd forget...

[thette.livejournal.com]

My chemistry and biology teacher from high school, a very demanding man who was approaching retirement, told us that story from his student days in Uppsala. On a certain day every year, the chemistry students would take as large amounts of sodium as they could get hold of, and throw it in the Fyris river. They had to stop during his student years, since the sodium hydroxide burned the paint of the cars that had recently been introduced.

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

Not as spectacular, but our chemistry teacher told us about a high school class he had in... I think it was South Africa? They were doing the usual sodium experiments, and one student planning mischief swiped a big lump of sodium from the jar and stashed it in his pocket.

It was a hot day, and he was sweating, and as you can imagine he quickly discovered why that wasn't such a good idea.

[culfinriel.livejournal.com]

2 thoughts leapt to mind - you've already covered the whole high school student and its various aspects but I am vastly amused by the very clear view of the "Keep Dry" painted onto the drums as they roll them down the hill. The good news? An endless supply of NaOH.