Chemistry Labs

Once a week I get to spend a couple of hours playing with chemicals, but nothing too explosive or fun. Usually we put together a bunch of different solutions, not really understanding what they are, and why we're putting them together. We only know that we need to record the temperature every minute for twenty minutes, and repeat the same experiment.

Then we get to move on and do almost the exact same thing, but with a different compound, or under different circumstances.

The most exciting thing we got to do yesterday was to burn a piece of Magnesium ribbon, to "observe" what happens.

To our delight we discovered that our tongs were crusted in residue copper, so it burned green (which Mg doesn't do...).

But that was it. We got to stir and stare at a thermometer for the rest of the lab.

I have found the chemistry lab to be an awkward place, however. I arrive right after swim practice, so I'm often sweaty and wet. Then we get to wear big safety glasses (in case that distilled dihydrogen monoxide just wants to tip right over!). If you aren't wearing pants and covered shoes, you get to don a garbage-bag skirt. Yup. They duct tape a garbage bag over your legs. If you walk anywhere, everyone will know, because you make a lovely swish swish swish noise with every step.

On top of all that, the tables are low enough that you have to bend at a 90 degree angle to correctly read the temperature or volume of a substance. The lab is set up so there's a person right behind you. When walking down in the aisles to retrieve more chemicals, it isn't uncommon to find that you can't squeeze between two rears, or you can just manage to squeeze, but it's really strange.

What's worse, is when you bend down to find, oh! You just butted someone you don't even know.

You quickly turn around, apologizing, blushing red, laughing nervously, then hurry and bend down back to your work--at an angle, so such a encounter won't happen again.

I guess that's why it's called chemistry...