Don’t ya just love those science and car crash movies they showed in school back in the 50’s and 60’s?
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The production values may stink but they got their point across.
And for our next demonstration, we’re going to give each of our secretaries a small chunk of weapons grade plutonium to keep with them. Then, let’s watch the fun when they come together for their 10:30 coffee break, learning an important lesson in the meaning of critical mass. If that doesn’t keep their coffee hot, I don’t know what will.
As always, boys and girls, don’t try this at home without mom and dad’s permission.
where’s Beaver & Lumpy?
I remember using Magnesium ribbon to light powdered Al at school. I think I used a Bunsen burner. I don’t think kids get to do that nowadays.
@#4 I did stuff like that in high school chemistry (I graduated in 2006).
That film does make me wonder though. Why were they trying to convince people that Mg was not really flammable?
I am 50 and never had any doubt that making warships out of the stuff was a really stupid idea.
pity they didnt have a 55 gal drum of magnesium shavings to open with a grinder….
exactly what was done at a magnesium recycler in a nearby burb from me a few years ago…
i remember the this column of smoke streaming high over the street from where i worked, a driver told me about this when he returned from his route that day, so i went outside to check it out.. nice column of smoke miles long. with an occasional flash under the column near the fire, and then a small mushroom cloud ascending from from near the flash point. 🙂
my sister and her family lives about a 1/4 mile from the site. my nephew told me how you could read outside by the light or this fire at 2 am.. 🙂
pity google maps doesnt have a good shot of the site with the melted I beams.
Thank heavens that large blocks of magnesium are never more evenly heated by say… burning gasoline or kerosene in a car or aircraft fire.
Otherwise these secretaries might have been toasted.
We used to take files to broken mag wheels, mix the powder with aluminum and rust and make a thermite-like mix that could melt deep holes in concrete sidewalks.
Ah… the days when chemistry wasn’t a criminal act.
well here is a news article about that.
Ha. I have one of these. It’s standard Boy Scout equipment. This stuff burns like hell.
You had me at secretaries and blow!
I assumed the site would explain it…you shave off the magnesium with a pocket knife, about a quarter-size pile. Scrape the knife of the sparker side, and stand back. It burns white-hot even in a puddle.
If they had shown me this film during my high school chem class, I probably would have had to hold a book on my lap. Nowadays, the kids are holding an iPhone on their lap and watching professional porn!
Ain’t progress grand?
“Weapons grade plutonium” is a redundant statement.
YES, do this without a MASK on…
see you in a few years with LUNG problems..
“Only certain fissile isotopes of plutonium and uranium can be used in nuclear weapons.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weapons-grade
Reminds me of a youtube video of a bumpkin ( complete with dueling banjos in the background)
proudly dimming the lights to show you his Halloween sparkles
I would not let any of these women near my car with their blow torches
Pu-240 is produced when Pu-239 absorbs an additional neutron and fails to fission. Pu-240 and Pu-239 are not separated by reprocessing.
“Plutonium is graded by proportion of Pu-240: weapons grade ( 19%).”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotopes_of_plutonium
Hmm, how many days now, and still no article on the stupid ruling done by the supreme court ?
A whole Dvorak.org/blog “UNCENSORED” blog…. and nothing regarding how we just lost power in our votes ? How corporations are treated as Persons ?
Whats this World coming too.
#19. “Whats this World coming too.” Answer: 42
#20 So, what was the question, really?
18. Oh I get it. What is this: WordPress? It interprets greater-than & less-than signs for its own purposes, often truncating. Once more for the gipper:
“Plutonium is graded by proportion of Pu-240: weapons grade (less than 7%), fuel grade (7–19%) and reactor grade (greater than 19%).”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotopes_of_plutonium
To prove that I don’t know everything, I’ll admit now that I have no idea what the fear of fearing you’re turning into Cliff Claven is called.
RBG
#21. I have to think about that, get back to ya.
#22 RBG, for future use, this method should still work for producing the < and > characters you wanted to use. Now I’ll expand the 4-character code combinations I used with spaces between the characters:
“& l t ;” & “& g t ;” minus the spaces = “<” & “>”
By the way, learning that bit of trivia only takes you further toward turning into Cliff Claven (especially if you repeat it frequently). Sorry about that 😉
.
#14 Father, it’s a little odd that you challenged just about the only aspect of my silly little joke that’s completely defensible. As the thousands of physicists who regularly use the phrase “weapons-grade plutonium” will attest, it is not redundant.
#19: We are not a news site.
#22: Those characters are interpreted as html code, so, as Gary said in 25, you have to enter the code combos.
Probably a magnesium industry film, not a high school one.
Mary’s my favorite. For some reason, all of their blouses look like preggo blouses. Excuse me, “with child” or “expecting” blouses.
Sooo… THAT’s how milk of magnesium gets rid of heart burn.
Four secretaries might not be able to get magnesium to burn, but I know of one sculptor who succeeded. He confused a piece of magnesium bar stock with aluminum and fed it into a molten crucible of aluminum. The new foundry was much nicer than the one he burned to the ground.