What’s the most interesting experiment* you’ve ever conducted, and why?
*Think outside the box. Experimentation can take place in big or small ways, in formal or informal settings, inside or outside of classrooms, labs, research facilities, etc. ~
When I was 14 I liked to experiment with chemicals to see what things I could do, I could buy bottles of nitric acid, sulfuric acid and muriatic acid from a drug store and the manager would just tell me to be careful with them. My favorite trick was to fill a balloon with hydrogen then let it float around a bit then hold a match to it to cause a little puff of an explosion. Then one time I decided to try making a real explosive: nitroglycerin. I put some sawdust in a tin lid from a cocoa can then added nitric acid glycerin and sulfuric acid. I was stirring the mixture gently then suddenly smoke began pouring from the mixture. WOW! That gave me a scare so I ran downstairs expecting the top of the house might blow off. Nothing happened so I went back up and found out what actually happened was just the acids reacting with the metal of the tin lid container. I never was successful at making nitroglycerin.
I performed an experiment whereby determining how long it took for the average "grammar nazi" to spot grammatical errors in my postings. Some errors were blatant, while others were more subtle. Postings were made at 3 hour intervals from 9 am to 9 pm.
Results -
Overall average time to detection - 7.1 hours
Average time to detection by hour: 9 am - 9.7 hours Noon - 5.6 hours 3 pm - 2.7 hours 6 pm - 1.8 hour 9 pm - 15.9 hours
Percentage of errors detected:
Blatant errors - 97.2% Subtle errors - 36.4%
Mistaken errors (errors which were flagged as errors but were not actual errors): 4.8%
Percent of time "grammar nazi" feel proud of themselves for finding errors - 100%
