Idiot instructor causes massive explosion with glass shrapnel in chemistry class.

Muonium
Muonium
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Published 2013-06-22
Some tie-dye wearing (but ZERO personal protective equipment-wearing) idiot attempting to perform the "whoosh bottle" or "fire in a bottle" experiment USING A GLASS BOTTLE instead of a plastic one, thus causing a HUGE explosion that blows glass shrapnel all over the room. Everyone in there was extremely lucky to not have been severely injured. Extra points for the flask of boiling water and open alcohol container RIGHT NEXT TO THE GODDAMN JUG too, retard. Moron teachers like this are the reason schools are so wary to let interesting demos be done in classes today.
All Comments (21)
  • @chashaffey
    No safety glasses? First sign of trouble.
  • @ExploringChemistry
    DO NOT BLAME THIS ACCIDENT ON METHANOL. **The fuel is NOT methanol.** I am not the idiot who did this, but can deduce a few things: * the gas vapor is heavier than air, or else it would have ignited at the top. Or it wasn't completely mixed, but that is unlikely because of the quantity of liquid fuel. Most likely, it was a fuel with a lower vapor pressure that settled quickly after shaking. Methanol vapor has the same density as air. So the fuel is not likely methanol. * igniting from the center, like he did, caused the glass to break. This is because the expanding pressure wave impacted the glass uniformly. * any organic chemist would tell you that glass is NOT a pressure vessel. Plastic is a better and safer pressure vessel. * he had way too much in there. It was burning all over the bench after the accident. * it wasn't methanol. Methanol doesn't burn with a yellow flame (no C2 is produced by methanol flames; C2 has a strong yellow-orange emission) * what are all the other chemicals and equipment doing on the bench? One volumetric flask was broken by flying glass, and I think the genius knocked a plastic bottle over when he recoiled. Probably the fuel he used. As stated above, this was NOT a methanol accident. It was acetone, ethanol (not likely), propanol, or any one of a myriad of 'safer' chemicals. I have tested many, many solvents with the Woosh Bottle. Methanol is the only fuel that is the same vapor density as air AND achieves a combustible mixture. The ONLY time I have seen a plastic bottle rupture -- and yes I did it during testing -- was when we used pure oxygen instead of air. We had two blast shields, hearing and eye protection, remote match drop, and a large room with nothing around. The bottle didn't fragment, it blew out a side and the top -- again, much safer than fragmenting glass.
  • @JustOneAsbesto
    I had a very similar thing happen in my high-school chemistry class with sodium in water.
  • @P9E8wcbpN6Q
    the whoosh bottle is commonly performed in glass bottles now, as ExploringChemistry said they used a "safer" alternative for the fuel
  • @membola
    well technically it did whoosh
  • @swetdep
    the description was more indulting than twitter women
  • @stoopidhaters
    Too much oxygen. The vapors not igniting straight away should have been a sign.
  • @mizzoupatriot8814
    Bruuh you're suppose to use the plastic ones....🤣🤣🤣🤣 You just made a giant alcohol grenade lmao.
  • @mattmcclure5815
    not really explosion its just the gases burning to slow if they went quicker the gasses wouldn't create extreme pressure inside the combustion chamber thats why it melted a hole in the chamber and let out the gasses witch meted more letting more gasses this goes on and on until it stops so thats basically all I can think of
  • @insaned0gg448
    He didn't add enough methanol or ethanol, and/or he didn't get it good enough on the walls of the bottle.