I seem to have become a hit target for misfortune.
It all started with the moth. Big, black, beeeauutiful moth flying into the classroom and creating a fuss.
Make no mistake, i like moths, insects, etc. that time, all of us were trying to guide it out of the class, but it kept banging its head on the walls, so sad... then i threw my bottle of glue at it, trying to scare it away.
My marksmanship has been appraised by friends when I do archery, but i never knew how good i was.
Believe me, it takes pretty good skill and luck (or absence of it) to hit a moth 3.5 metres away with a 10 cm long object and split it evenly in half at the body.
At that moment, i felt like Robin Hood having just shot Richard the Lionhearted in his Lionheart.
(pardon my literature)
then, today, i wrote out of topic for my Prelim Chinese Paper 1, and couldn't finish in time.
But, as they say, the BEST is saved for LAST.
There was Chem practical today, and we had to do 2, not one experiment involving comcentrated acid, and we were dead tired and hungry.
Although haste was necessary, all went well till the last section of expt 2.
We had to pour boiling water into lead iodide precipitate and then bring the whole mixture to boil.
We were supposed to obtain beautiful sparkling yellow crystals after that.
My partner Stephanie was quite fast, she was already boiling water.
1/4 of H2O in a SMALL test tube.
My back was turned to her; i was about to take some chemicals, i think.
However, i think all of us forgot 1 thing, NEVER boil water in a small test tube.
Why? Well, the test tube confines the movement of the water molecules as they change from liquid to gas.
This is a very exothermic reaction, so one moment the molecules would be moving slowly, and the next they would be increasing rapidly. Confining the movement in such a small space forces the molecules to also move sideways as there is no room to expand above.
The result: An explosion of the test tube.
Which was EXACTLY what happened.
"BANG!!!"
I saw the curved end of the test, tube, less than 1cm inlength, shoot past my face as if firedwith a compressor.
I was stunned and shocked at the sound, and dumbly watched the remaining glass splinters skitter past my feet.
Eternity passed. I recovered enough to turn around. My wide eyes met with 41 pairs of eyes looking in my direction.
At first I thought the explosion came from the other end of the lab. Then i saw Stephanie still holding the test tube holder with only the middle portion of the test tube.
Mrs Lee came over, kept shouting are u all rite? are u all rite. At first she thought it was me. so she asked what did u do?
I opened my mouth, trying to form audible sounds. Failing that, i dumbly shook my head.
20 seconds later, someone (i tink its yeeting or qianyu) noticed my arm was bleeding.
I didn't feel any pain at all. the glass must have nicked me so thinly and quickly as it spun past me that i din notice.
ALL because of 1 dead moth. Thank God I'm still fine and it wasn't acid or something worse that exploded. and thank God my face was turned away.
This is a warning to all Chemistry students: Be careful in the Lab at all times.
You didn't hear that? Let me repeat:
BE CAREFUL IN THE LABORATORY AT ALL TIMES!!!
DUN ASSUME U ARE SAFE JUZ BECOZ U ARE NOT DOING ANY EXPERIMENTS, REMEMBER, ACCIDENTS HAPPEN ANYTIME, ANY WHERE, AND TO ANYONE.
Adios.
It all started with the moth. Big, black, beeeauutiful moth flying into the classroom and creating a fuss.
Make no mistake, i like moths, insects, etc. that time, all of us were trying to guide it out of the class, but it kept banging its head on the walls, so sad... then i threw my bottle of glue at it, trying to scare it away.
My marksmanship has been appraised by friends when I do archery, but i never knew how good i was.
Believe me, it takes pretty good skill and luck (or absence of it) to hit a moth 3.5 metres away with a 10 cm long object and split it evenly in half at the body.
At that moment, i felt like Robin Hood having just shot Richard the Lionhearted in his Lionheart.
(pardon my literature)
then, today, i wrote out of topic for my Prelim Chinese Paper 1, and couldn't finish in time.
But, as they say, the BEST is saved for LAST.
There was Chem practical today, and we had to do 2, not one experiment involving comcentrated acid, and we were dead tired and hungry.
Although haste was necessary, all went well till the last section of expt 2.
We had to pour boiling water into lead iodide precipitate and then bring the whole mixture to boil.
We were supposed to obtain beautiful sparkling yellow crystals after that.
My partner Stephanie was quite fast, she was already boiling water.
1/4 of H2O in a SMALL test tube.
My back was turned to her; i was about to take some chemicals, i think.
However, i think all of us forgot 1 thing, NEVER boil water in a small test tube.
Why? Well, the test tube confines the movement of the water molecules as they change from liquid to gas.
This is a very exothermic reaction, so one moment the molecules would be moving slowly, and the next they would be increasing rapidly. Confining the movement in such a small space forces the molecules to also move sideways as there is no room to expand above.
The result: An explosion of the test tube.
Which was EXACTLY what happened.
"BANG!!!"
I saw the curved end of the test, tube, less than 1cm inlength, shoot past my face as if firedwith a compressor.
I was stunned and shocked at the sound, and dumbly watched the remaining glass splinters skitter past my feet.
Eternity passed. I recovered enough to turn around. My wide eyes met with 41 pairs of eyes looking in my direction.
At first I thought the explosion came from the other end of the lab. Then i saw Stephanie still holding the test tube holder with only the middle portion of the test tube.
Mrs Lee came over, kept shouting are u all rite? are u all rite. At first she thought it was me. so she asked what did u do?
I opened my mouth, trying to form audible sounds. Failing that, i dumbly shook my head.
20 seconds later, someone (i tink its yeeting or qianyu) noticed my arm was bleeding.
I didn't feel any pain at all. the glass must have nicked me so thinly and quickly as it spun past me that i din notice.
ALL because of 1 dead moth. Thank God I'm still fine and it wasn't acid or something worse that exploded. and thank God my face was turned away.
This is a warning to all Chemistry students: Be careful in the Lab at all times.
You didn't hear that? Let me repeat:
BE CAREFUL IN THE LABORATORY AT ALL TIMES!!!
DUN ASSUME U ARE SAFE JUZ BECOZ U ARE NOT DOING ANY EXPERIMENTS, REMEMBER, ACCIDENTS HAPPEN ANYTIME, ANY WHERE, AND TO ANYONE.
Adios.
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