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Chemistry Sets for Adults?
An Anonymous Coward asks "I've been pursuing a few different lines of study, to refresh myself in basic sciences before I return to school. Right now I am reading up on Chemistry, and thought it would be fun to acquire a chemistry set just to play around with and maybe learn a few things from. Do any science geeks here have any suggestions?" My childhood garage probably still has purple and black stains all over it (lucky I was wearing glasses). 300 in one electronics kits, anyone?
So called "childrens" chemistry and electronics sets are perfectly good for adult too.
unzip; strip; touch; finger; mount; fsck; more; yes; unmount; sleep
When i was in Orgo chem the *best* and coolest thing we did was extract limoene (orange oil). But you need reflux glassware for it.. but i'll tell ya the stuff smells great. and the practical upshot is that you can use it and other essental oils as food flavorings
Well, if you wan't to have lots of fun, well kinda, try making some of the chemicals you self or using household goods.
Amonia isn't that hard to make,
Ethanol's quite easy too (just don't get caught!)
Acids are a bit trickier.... but not that hard.
It'll give you lots of practice nad help if WW3 breaks out(or if you need any 'added-extras' for a night out).
Things like the anarchists cook book should help point you in the right direction.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
It's obvious why this guy wants a chemistry set... The same reason we all wanted one:
To blow things up.
There is a solution, though.
A hand full of sodium + a large lake = very nice explosions.
You can learn the importance of keeping alkaline metals away from water, the amount of energy created with the mixing of H2Oand sodium, and why you should never stick sodium in someone's bathing suit.
Can you say, "Win Win."
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I'll
The experimenters labs are good for starting out - having a structured set of experiments to build, and yes, you can even go beyond those simple experiments and build simple experiments which are not in the book. For the most fun, however, I like the prototype breadboards. One of those with appropriate power supplies and other test equipment is good for analog, digital or combination circuitry. Add a few experimenters parts kits from Jameco and you are in business.
As for Chemistry kits, I think just buying the labware you need and the various chemicals etc. is a better way to go than a pre-fabricated kit.
The real interesting stuff however would be a molecular biology lab. Slice and splice DNA and build your very own new and interesting critter! Yes, you too can build your own miltary grade anthrax, plague or even smallpox. Add the THC gene to corn! Create that perfect paisley rose! Be the envy of everyone on your block! hmmmm I better quit now. Seriously, it is probably not all that hard to build a DNA synthesizer. Why not convert an ink-jet printer ? DNA = 4 molecules, many printers have 4 ink tanks. How tiny of a drop can you print???
Z
enough is too much
and thought it would be fun to acquire a chemistry set just to play around with and maybe learn a few things from
If you want an adult-style chemistry set, try one of those home beer brew kits or a home winemaking kit. You get to monkey around with various ingredients and after its all done you reap the rewards. err.. "Reap Responsibly"..
Trolling is a art,
Exactly - that was the experience I had with my old 300-in-1 chemistry set about 27 years ago.
I did 30 pages of book/guided stuff. E.g. filtering a sand and salt solution, then spending 2 hours getting the salt out of the solution... at the end, guess what? I had salt again!!! Gee, that was fun.
I switched to my own guided experiments soon after that: KnO3 is cool, magnesium burns pretty well, sulfur smells bad, but hydrogen sulphide is even better! My father (a chemist) banished my experiments to the garage.
Next month, I told my parents I needed a pound of sodium chlorate as a desiccant. My father managed to keep a straight face, but bought it for me anyway.
Many more self-directed experiments were performed, and I found myself learning in leaps and bounds: I learned about the surface area of reactants when I thoughtlessly substituted powdered charcoal for granulated sugar in a simple propulsion experiment. Haha, skin and hair grow back.
Chemistry is cool, but make sure your set has fun compounds... I mean, what the hell fun is copper sulphate, etc?
Also, keep a lab book: it makes for pretty fun reading later in life ("4oz nitrocellulose," what was I thinking?) and is helpful if you screw up and the doctor/bomb-disposal unit needs to figure out what was going on.
Sure was fun to have my own 10mw-ish AM station, though.
Frankly if I were to do it all over again I'd just go buy a bunch of components, a soldering iron and a few prototyping boards. They still make those prototyping boards, don't they?
--
There is no hatred more pure and true than that expressed by children.
Other areas that involve chemistry and makes a good hobby are geology and mineralogy. You can collect samples, characterize them, learn about crystallography, and also analyze the samples chemically.
And if you get seriously involved, you can actually accomplish new science in areas like those, even with fairly modest resources. There are lots of publications dedicated to both the hobbyist and the professionals in those areas; look at them at your local university library to get some ideas.
A guy I worked with once told me "if you're cutting up a steak for people to sample, don't cut it into little cubes...cut it into long, thin strips...it tastes better because it provides a greater surface area for {big long enzyme in the saliva} to work with". (He then told me, "I learned that in the Organic-Chemistry-for-Chefs Class that I took last year". (And, yes, he really used the phrase "organic chemistry".)). Of course, I immediately put this to a field test with about 5 people (including myself) as test subjects. Sure enough, he was correct...the same steak -- when cut into long thin strips -- tastes better than the when it's cut into an volumetrically equivalent cube.
YES! My uncle had a friend buy what he called a "nautical generator" for his boat on ebay (he's not very computer inclined). And a few months later the FBI came to the guys house and they wanted to know what he wanted it for and where it was etc ... Kind of weird because its difficult to think of any nefarious uses for a generator.
Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley
Warning: prepare to spend at least an hour looking at this site.
Get into developing and printing your own photos. You know, the old analog kind. Even better, study some old antique photo processes like Cyanotype or Platinography. I make my own photo papers using these antique methods, and it is satisfying enough to keep me interested, and I was an Honors Chem major until I switched to art, majoring in photography).
Making your own printing papers and photochems is a ton of fun, and yields tangible results (unlike most things you could do with a chemistry set).
One of the most interesting and rewarding reactions you can study as an amateur is mirror silvering using Tollens' reagent. I had an arc lamp reflector that needed resilvering, and decided to do it myself.
h tm l
After a lot of web research, I found that this website had the best directions (and the best safety warnings!):
http://lerch.no-ip.com/atm/Silver.htm
The only chemicals I had any trouble finding were silver nitrate crystals, which can be purchased from photography supply stores, such as:
http://www.photoformulary.com/
or ebay, and concentrated nitric acid, which can be purchased from lithography supply stores, such as:
http://www.rembrandtgraphicarts.com/13_rga_cat.
The hazmat shipping charge for the nitric acid will exceed the cost of the chemical.
The process is somewhat complex, involves a number of stages, but isn't too difficult to do. It's an interesting reaction to watch, and the result is cool and useful. I created a perfect mirror coating on the inside of a bottle on the second try, and successfully coated my reflector mirror immediately thereafter.
Everything worked for me, except that I found that I had to heat the muriatic acid in order to make the solder dissolve when creating the sensitizing solution.
That's my recommended interesting experiment.
If by "kit" you mean those "Mr. Brew" things you can find in most stores, don't bother -- that beer is terrible. Instead, find your local brewery supply store and get the proper items. If, on the other hand, you mean a "kit" from your local brewery supplier that includes the necessary items you need for brewing, then great. My roommate made a batch of homebrew earlier in December, turned out really good.
:)
Nah.. I got the real deal. I helped a buddy do a Mr. Brew thing because he's not too quick on the uptake with reading directions and sterilization, but I went out and got the real deal. Four gallon pot for boiling wort, 2 6.5 gallon buckets, one for fermentation and one for bottling, bottle capper, hydrometer, proper thermometer, siphon tubing, etc.
It'll be a week and a half before the first batch is done, but damn do I have fun watching the little CO2 bubbles coming out of the airlock
I hear that a glass bottle works better (flavor-wise) for fermentation than the plastic buckets. May just be hear-say, though. Anyway, that's pretty much what my roommate has going -- pot for boiling wort (4gal is probably overkill, since you don't need the full amount of water while you're boiling your wort), 5gal glass bottle for fermentation, 5gal bucket for bottling, all the trappings for sterilization, bottling, etc. Makes a good brew. I'm slowly working my way through this first batch while he's out of town on vacation. Mmm ... beer for me.
For me, it's too much work, but he's into it. Sounds like after the next batch of pre-packaged wort, he's going to try his hand at doing everything from scratch. Fine by me, since even a bad homebrew is better than a Bud.
You of course will need chemicals and chemistry equipment. I expect that you could call the local high school and find out where to get them -- and the high school teacher could suggest where you might get a nice sampling. I can't help a lot there.
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But perhaps I could suggest a book, instead:
Laboratory Experiments for General Chemistry, 4ed
by Hunt, Block, and McKelvy
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/det
This one is extremely useful in that it:
(1) Lists the equipment needed for each (so you can go through, find the experiments that you can do)
(2) Lists tons of safety and first-aid information, with standardized icons for each item
(3) provides lab reports to fill out, which will help you understand the experiments
(4) The experiments are actually rather standard; not all of them require special equipment.
One word of caution: After produced the book, my brother noted that one of the experiments, standard to most College Chemistry Lab courses, is wrong:
Experiment 13, the Burning of a Candle.
My brother claims that the experiment purports to demonstrate the stoichiometry of combustion; in reality, it demonstrates the heat given off by candles, and the ideal gas law PV=NRT. He said that he demonstrated this by attempting the experiment in several different ways, one with 3 candles close together (burning hotter), one with three candles farther apart (burning cooler).
I haven't done that experiment myself in his way. But I thought I should mention that.
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
I have played with this a good deal in my younger days.
You should use pure ammonia in solution not some household cleaning product that contains ammonia, or you will most likely be disappointed.
Filter the precipitate and then wash repeatedly with ethanol (at a pinch, common methylated spirits works fairly well, too). This stabilises the compound much better than leaving it soaking in ammonia.
Then transfer the wet precipitate to a suitable container preferably made from soft plastic that is alcohol-resistant and with a soft plastic lid with an easily-cleaned screwtop.
Fill the container TO THE BRIM with alcohol.
Ensure that the screw threads and cap are completely free of precipitate and that the wet precipitate is then COMPLETELY COVERED.
In this state the compound appears to be quite stable over long periods of time. It will dry out very quickly when placed on a surface and then become extremely sensitive to vibration etc.
Oh, don't forget to clean the spoon etc. you used to transfer the precipitate; picking it up absent-mindedly later on will teach you a lesson you will not forget in a hurry, otherwise.
I would suggest wearing stout gloves anytime you dispense anything from that container, just in case.
PS: on the topic of explosives, those who fool with chlorate compounds be aware that many have died or been seriously maimed by contaminating screw threads with powder and then when the thread is tightened or loosened, detonation occurs by friction.
Bear in mind also that ignition due to static discharge has been known to happen.
If you are going to fool with explosive substances, please don't use containers that will fragment into schrapnel. A soft (polythene) container will rupture quite satisfyingly without creating dangerous shards - so will cardboard. Wear safety glasses at all times and preferably strong gloves, and remember, sooner or later you WILL have an accident. Trust me, I speak from experience, and I was very lucky indeed not to lose my sight. Very lucky... at that point I realised that fooling with dangerous chemicals might be best abandoned.
I do realise the allure of creating loud and satisfying bangs, and the safest compound I found for this is a 50-50 mixture of powdered magnesium and potassium permanganate. This is incredibly fast burning, much faster than gunpowder, appears to be quite stable and even a drinking straw filled with it will explode quite nicely.
You do need to powder the permanganate and this is a risky process for your lungs, in particular, so do take care....
the stuff on the edges of the filter paper I'd laid out in the middle of the garage blew up before the stuff in the middle had dried out, thereby splattering the floor with really tiny droplets of still-wet stuff and fragments of filter paper.
I used filter paper too, until I found a much better substitute- kitty litter! Specifically, that kind of kitty litter that clumps into a tight ball when it gets wet. Dries the stuff out quickly, confines it really well in a tight clump, and transmits shock evenly to all the precipitate at once- so you get huge noisy explosions with a good report- and disgusting iodinated kitty litter flung all over your backyard! None of the snap crackle business you get when the stuff is exposed to the open air. Of course you shouldn't ever do this, ever.
Explosions aside, iodine itself is fun. I dropped a crystal on a counter surface once (this was when I was a chemist at a generic drug lab) and I noticed it a few hours later. So I picked it up. Of course by now there was a stain on the counter around where it had been. I wiped it up, but it came back.
The janitor came in, saw the stain, and wiped it away. Within a minute- the stain was back! So he wiped it again. Scrub scrub scrub. As soon as he turned his back- there it was again! Scrub scrub scrub. It kept coming back- and it was getting darker even as you looked at it! I put a thiosulfate-soaked paper towel on it and told him not to worry about it.
I felt bad for the people who cleaned that place. One of the tablets they made there was phenazopyridine, which is a drug women take for urinary tract infections (it's a urinary tract analgesic). This is one of the azo dyes, which means it has an -N=N- azo bond in it. All these compounds have an intense color. Pure phenazopyridine itself is a dark red powder, but in trace amounts, or when it's been dissolved in alcohol, it turns an intense yellow. (Which is a good thing, since urine is the same color- actually, that's probably why that compound is used for this purpose.)
EVERYTHING in that place was yellow. People would track that stuff all over the place. There was a yellow streak going down the center of the hallway, the chairs and tables had yellow marks everywhere, the books had yellow fingerprints on them, it was a thin film all over everything and everybody. Even things at home started turning yellow. The tiniest crystal would get on you and that was the end of it.
And don't even get me started on my idiot boss at that place, who inadvertently rediscovered the formula for dynamite while trying to come up with an FDA-approvable procedure for a selenium assay on vitamin tablets! What a mess that was! But this post is already getting too long.
Much later I met someone who told me a story about a friend of theirs, who had some leftover phenazopyridine tablets and had noticed the intense color. She actually dyed her hair with the stuff for Halloween!!! Holy crap! Then (surprise, surprise) she couldn't get it out of her hair, so she eventually called the drug manufacturer to ask for advice. They were no help- in fact they couldn't stop laughing at her! (You can actually kill the stain with a solution of sodium dithionite, but this smells so evil we didn't even consider it an option for cleaning the floors. They should have just told her to shave her head and scrub her scalp with lots of rubbing alcohol.) I couldn't believe my ears when I heard that story. Her whole house must still be yellow.