Fun with inorganic chemistry.

[randomness]

We did toss a small chunk of sodium metal into water in my high school second year chemistry class at one point--I think it might have been a day when we had a substitute teacher--but unfortunately we had no cesium in the back room.

More videos along these lines available at the Open University site: http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=294420

Comments

Re: That's not stolen, that's a tradition

[nezumiko.livejournal.com]

I think they lived in Senior House. They graduated in 1960. Don't know how old the tradition is, but I found an article from The Tech online that attributes multiple Sodium Drop events in the past, not just East Campus. I've tried to Google the history of the Sodium Drop, but to no effect. The story was always told by dad and his friend as if it were an original prank, but I can believe it was tradition.

They also tell a story about someone thermiting a bronze slide rule into the left hand of the statue of John Harvard in Harvard Yard, but I don't know if that was an idea that was actually carried out, or merely lovingly thought upon.