Post by A Snowflake in the Sea on May 14, 2007 19:14:29 GMT -5
ok so today in chem class, i was doing this lab where we put hydrochloric acid (HCl) in a buret and slowly add it to a weak base with the indicator congo red in it so that with the results of how much HCl it took for the congo red to turn violet we can determine the pH of the weak base...
so we had the HCl in the buret and the congo red and the weak base in the flask underneath...and i opened the buret... the latch popped off and acid starting going everywhere...
and HCl spilled all over my hands and forearms...
it didn't burn, so i thought it maybe took a second...
i ran to the sink and started washing it off and stuff...
at that moment, my teacher goes, "has anyone gotten the solution to change color?"
and everyone was like "nope, not yet..."
my teacher was like "oh no!!!"
and everyone's like "what?!"
and she told how someone the class period before had a flask of a clear liquid and thought it was the HCl and so he put it back... but my teacher said that she had really been hoping that it hadn't been the weak base in the flask... but the kid said that he was sure it was HCl so it wasn't a problem...
anyways...
long story short (well, not really long... but...) he had added a flaskful of weak base to the HCl... definately neutralized the whole thing...
so no one's solutions were reacting and my hands weren't burning on account that what we thought was HCl now probably had a pH of about 7... (the pH of tap water)
PHEW!!
once we got the REAL HCl (my teacher had some more stored in the back), my lab partner and i got a buret that wasn't faulty... so it was all good...
just a little excitement.
i also saw a gila monster on the way back from Seminary today... i totally thought it was going to attack me... i jumped 3 feet in the air when i saw it... but as it turns out, it was dead. I took a picture...wanna see?
ahh... the compy that i'm on doesn't have a USB port... i can't upload the pic. i'll do it later. it's pretty amazing...
it was REAL big too... i've only seen a gila monster once before, and it was a good 5 inches shorter than this one. this one is probably about 1 and a quarter feet....
anyways.
i'll post it later... it's cool.
so i had 2 brushes with death today that actually turned out to be practically harmless... haha....
so we had the HCl in the buret and the congo red and the weak base in the flask underneath...and i opened the buret... the latch popped off and acid starting going everywhere...
and HCl spilled all over my hands and forearms...
it didn't burn, so i thought it maybe took a second...
i ran to the sink and started washing it off and stuff...
at that moment, my teacher goes, "has anyone gotten the solution to change color?"
and everyone was like "nope, not yet..."
my teacher was like "oh no!!!"
and everyone's like "what?!"
and she told how someone the class period before had a flask of a clear liquid and thought it was the HCl and so he put it back... but my teacher said that she had really been hoping that it hadn't been the weak base in the flask... but the kid said that he was sure it was HCl so it wasn't a problem...
anyways...
long story short (well, not really long... but...) he had added a flaskful of weak base to the HCl... definately neutralized the whole thing...
so no one's solutions were reacting and my hands weren't burning on account that what we thought was HCl now probably had a pH of about 7... (the pH of tap water)
PHEW!!
once we got the REAL HCl (my teacher had some more stored in the back), my lab partner and i got a buret that wasn't faulty... so it was all good...
just a little excitement.
i also saw a gila monster on the way back from Seminary today... i totally thought it was going to attack me... i jumped 3 feet in the air when i saw it... but as it turns out, it was dead. I took a picture...wanna see?
ahh... the compy that i'm on doesn't have a USB port... i can't upload the pic. i'll do it later. it's pretty amazing...
it was REAL big too... i've only seen a gila monster once before, and it was a good 5 inches shorter than this one. this one is probably about 1 and a quarter feet....
anyways.
i'll post it later... it's cool.
so i had 2 brushes with death today that actually turned out to be practically harmless... haha....