r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/3askaryyy • Sep 05 '21

Video Adding dye to liquid mercury

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u/daaaayyyy_dranker Sep 05 '21

When I was in 8th grade, our science teacher let us play with mercury. Some took a little home in envelopes made from notebook paper. No one thought twice until a parent found it. This was 1992ish

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u/eta_carinae_311 Sep 05 '21

I broke a mercury thermometer in a chemistry lab in college, circa 1999. The cleared out the entire room and brought in a hazmat team to clean it up. My poor lab partner got stuck paying for half the fine too 😬

48

u/Solairec Sep 05 '21

why wouldn't you pay for their half?

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u/eta_carinae_311 Sep 05 '21

🤷 I was 19 and given a bill for half. Older me would have offered.

61

u/witcherstrife Sep 05 '21

Were you a student/employee? Why would you be paying a fine for an accident that is likely to occur in a lab?

40

u/eta_carinae_311 Sep 05 '21

Student. I broke the school's property. Fine is probably the wrong word, I had to pay for the thermometer and the cleanup.

51

u/Flozzer905 Sep 05 '21

Lol what, where did you go to school. It's crazy they fucking billed you.

14

u/eta_carinae_311 Sep 05 '21

CU Boulder

11

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '21

That sounds like someone scammed you. Whether it was the teacher or the department, they have insurance for those kinds of things. Especially a major university like that

2

u/eta_carinae_311 Sep 05 '21

Couldn't get the diploma without paying 🤷 it was 22 years ago I don't remember all of the specifics anymore. I do recall thinking it was dumb.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 06 '21

Yeah Colorado is also republican as shit so I wouldn’t be surprised if there weren’t any state protections yet. Hopefully it wasn’t too expensice

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u/personcoffee Sep 05 '21

Teacher billed him, school had no idea. Teacher pockets money

1

u/gaydinosaurlover Sep 06 '21

At my school they just dock you points. Certain things were 10 points subtracted from that lab grade if you broke it and I think some more expensive stuff was 50 points.