Close to Home by John McPherson for January 22, 2023

And this is helpful knowledge. HOW.

Weird Science?

I think I recall doing experiments like that…

Lab teacher’s expression: “And your Point to all this…??”

The should be wearing goggles while performing unauthorized experiments.

Flashback….high school senior year, got stuck in “jock chem” taught by the basketball coach instead of the class taught by a man who actually knew the subject. One other nerd had also drawn the short end of the stick so we stuck together for mutual protection in lab and finished the text book in our own private seminar so we could pass the science SAT. Hated that school and went off to college with a song in my heart.

And the Teacher says , Oh good now you can give me a 1500 word paper on the Thermodynamic transference of a Bic pen vs. A eraser !

Science is about finding answers to questions in systematic repeatable ways. Your questions are yours, but in this situation another’s question may take priority.

Oh what fun chemistry class was. We’d finish our lessons. The teacher was gone. We’d help the clique girls with their classwork. Then we would get chemicals out of the cabinet and do our own experiments.

Department of Education tax dollars at work.

Is that Celsius or Fahrenheit?

In all fairness, the boys are devising an experiment to satisfy their curiosity. Isn’t that the root of the scientific process?

Fahrenheit 451° = the temperature at which homework ignites.

(Mmmmmmmmmnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnyyyaaaaahhhhhh GREEN PLAID ALERT!)

(Everybody do a shot!)

Whew! It’s good to see you up and about, Bleeb! And, you are probably thinking that 327 degrees is not very hot at all compared to h*ll.

Experiment not on the the teachers list…

When I took chemistry in high school two of the guys who shared the lab area with me liked to have mock fights with the Bunsen burners. I seem to recall their lab notebooks being rather charred.

I didn’t engage in such shenanigans, though; I was too busy bleaching little spots on my jeans when I accidentally splashed nitric acid on myself. Of course the really weird stuff happened when I took physics: for reasons no one was able to figure out, my physical proximity to various meters (e.g., voltmeter) caused the indicator needle to deflect; no kidding, the needle would move depending on how close I was to it, and it didn’t happen with anyone else.

Students don’t need to understand the course content. All they need to do is show that they were thinking something…anything…and they will get a passing grade. Actually teachers are not permitted to fail a student. It “hinders their social development” WTF? I would never hire someone who got a “merit pass”. I want them to know how to do the job I hired them for.

even more useless information

I remember the kid next to me caught his hair on fire with the Bunsen burner.

An accident potentially involving superpowers waiting to happen….

Learning to learn. A skill you should never stop doing.

Teacher: What a coincidence! That is also the melting point of a passing grade!

He’s putting the “mental” in “experimental”.

Bleeb wants to join the fun but he’s afraid they’ll drop him into a beaker!

Well at least they are enjoying the class for a change. Take heed Teacher.

They are verifying the extrusion temperature of a plastic for injection molding or 3d printing. Some day you might get a different provider or a funny bag of beads and the equipment doesn’t work

Good time for a lesson on the difference between melting temperature and glass transition temperature.

And an young Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman realize their destiny

Notes, notes, hey someone got a pen…