Gilded

Talking of stupid things related to getting yourself (nearly) killed... http://www.darwinawards.com/slush/200407/pending20040731-054827.html Phosphorous and iodine. In a film canister. In your front pocket. Ehhh.

Heh, osmium is a relative to bromine in this aspect, since its name comes from the Greek word meaning "smell" (osmos or something), because of the awful osmium tetroxide probably.

If it was only the flash powder case... As mentioned many, many times, it's the TCAP, MEKP and other suicidal materials that make the rather sad headlines since sometimes in those cases the idiot isn't the only one who drops from the gene pool.

The math lesson today went straight over my (and just about everyone else's) head. I'm starting to really consider the option of switching to the less advanced high school mathematics. Btw, I think Hong Kong was 1st and Finland 2nd in a worldwide comparison that had something to do with how well people learn math in different places.

It's amazing how only Americans or Brittish (mostly Sir Alex Ferguson though) commit funny crimes.

"I don't think there's anyone who believes they will be sharing the afterlife with anaerobic bacteria." Hmmm... Interesting. *goes to register Bacterism as an official religion*

I've also heard agoraphobia being sometimes used in the "being in the middle of a crowd" situation. Is it more of "sociophobia" or something?

Hmmh. If I'd shoot someone who tried to rob my house I'd probably get a minimum 4 years of jail. Not that anyone except army, hunters or police officers are allowed to own a firearm here.

Well okay, the E was merely an attempt to convert the 4-10 system to the F-A system. So I got a 4, which is the worst you can bloody get (but I did pass the course, yay! ).

Whoops. Well, this one goes straight away to the "Times I Couldn't Think Clearly Due To Sleep Deprivation" archive.

"no, I`ve never broken the law ))" Yeah and I'm the queen of England.

"crowds do make it worse for some reason" Some stage of agoraphobia perhaps?

"i dont find nitrates to be particularly fun but hey, that's just me" I must admit that nitrates aren't fun in the case you use them for something that has the potential of incapacitating you for life (or ending your life right away).

Bromine forms some amazing compounds too. Boratsine or diborane is a good example.

I'm struggling to get an E in math, because two F's in a row aren't a good thing in high school in Finland (not that getting F's would be great in any other country ). No, not really. I'm addicted to Natuk ( http://www.proudft.com/natuk.html ), which sadly summed with occasional Counter-Strike takes up all my time. Gaming addiction is always a good reason to have your grade raised to an E... or not.

Potassium nitrate is certainly fun - you don't need s*** to make it (no wait, that's exactly what you need), and you can make black powder, rocket fuel or other fun stuff with it.

Perhaps we should turn down the pedantry-switch and discuss some alien biology. (And why does everyone call me Guilded Well, two people at least. )

Also quite astonishing is to think how many photons are created every second by even a small star. I mean, they're all lightyears away and still an amount of photons noticable with bare eyes reaches the Earth.

Ooh, a quark-sized blackhole sounds cool. I also recall there being an article concerning similar-sized wormholes. Too bad you can't fit anything useful through them though.

^Yeah, got to agree with you there 5614. I (or anyone) could say that there is going to be a major earthquake in Japan, exactly 3:30 AM local time on December 26th and call it a prediction. What it is actually, but only a prediction with no scientific base whatsoever. More of a guess really.

Hmmh. I recall there being several potassium nitrate threads in the past, but I try to answer anyway. Relatively pure potassium nitrate is available at most gardening stores (it's sometimes called kalisaltpeter or similar too). If you don't mind minor impurities that's probably best. However, even pure KNO3 is relatively cheap at chemistry stores (I've seen price ranges of a 500g bag from £2.60 to even 9.80£, the latter one being a total ripoff though ).

There's a whole lot of difference. In both compounds though, there is a Ca+2 ion that has the other atoms around it. In calcium chloride, there are two chlorine atoms. In calcium carbide, there are two carbon atoms that are bound to each other in a triple bond.

"I believe that the heat caused the salt to melt, and then it vaporized thus giving the yellow color." That what it sure sounds like, at least for what YT has told so far. :I

"I don´t understand that, especially not when I consider that light allways travels at lightspeed." [nitpicking]The phenomenon we call light doesn't necessarily travel at lightspeed. However, photons always travel at c.[/nitpicking]

"ts like a normal person would think nothing of it, a mathematician would see an equation for it (or something!) and a scientist would see the compounds breaking up and oxidising or reducing and burning or whatever!" And I think "Perhaps I could use this to blow something up!".