It's magnesium powder, I swear!
When I had just started high school, science lessons were winsome. For the first time, we had classes that involved fire and chemicals and gases and explosions and stuff!

One of the first experiments I can remember being shown was a simple 'un - Stick a bit of magnesium ribbon over a Bunsen burner and watch it go up in flames with a magnificent flash! Like any eager young scientist, I had to replicate this. So at the end of our lesson, I stuck a handful of the stuff into my pocket to take home.

That night when my folks were out, I pinched my brothers lighter and attempted to create science... Clearly the flame wasn't powerful enough. Nothing happened.

Ah-ha, thinks I, the cooker is basically a giant Bunsen burner! So off I go to the kitchen and recreate the class with the help of some barbecue tongs. After having much fun (I was 12, it was fun, honestly!) I went back to playing Championship Mannager or watching Robot Wars or something else that I did in the nineties.

An hour or so later, and I am startled by my screaming mother:

"ARE YOU DOING DRUGS!?"

I had forgotten to clean the white powdery residue from the kitchen worktops. Obviously the only possibility was that a twelve year old had access to cocaine, could afford cocaine and was snorting cocaine from the kitchen worktop on a Tuesday night.

I'm still not convinced she believed my excuse.
( greg_evigan is possibly deceased on, Fri 10 Aug 2012, 0:46, 3 replies)

Dammit
That just made me search for magnesium ribbon on ebay. It's so easy to get hold of now I'm grown up!
(835Rocks, Fri 10 Aug 2012, 1:27, closed)

Health and Safety now says...
...we have to give the kids blue glass to view this through nowadays.
(karnuvap, Fri 10 Aug 2012, 7:45, closed)

But how do they see through the glass
when they have their conker goggles on?
( greg_evigan is possibly deceased on, Fri 10 Aug 2012, 10:01, closed)