Education Through Pyrotechnics: Difference between revisions

** The entire purpose of the Alchemist's Guild seems to be to accidentally blow things up. As one description put it, "Most of the time, the Alchemist's Guild was across the street from the Gambler's Guild. Other times, it was above it, or below it, or falling in small pieces all around it."

Their synthetic ivory is of particular note—unlike most endeavors, the process went swimmingly; they managed it in about a week. Unfortunately, the formula still needs fine tuning, as their billiards games keep getting interrupted by exploding balls. Amusingly, this is a very slightly exaggerated version of the real history of synthetic ivory. The first viable substitute for ivory in billiard balls was a mixture of nitro cellulose (guncotton), camphor, and acetone (very flammable). As guncotton ages it becomes more sensitive to percussion, and so every now and then... "I done seen it all, Sheriff. It were the cue ball what shot first."

* ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'' briefly subverts this: in a setting rife with magic, weresquirrels, [[Hyperspace Mallet|Hammerspace]] and people who seem unable to hold onto their gender for 24 hours straight, the science teacher is a completely ordinary person who's exasperated by the disrespect the main characters pay to the laws of physics. It should be noted, however, that the first real plotline in the comic was about a science experiment that had come to life and attacked, although when it came back to life a few plotlines later it was [[retcon]]ned to have been an attack by an interdimensional rival instead.

** "She Of Little Faith" had an entire beginning where Homer teaches Bart and Milhouse how to launch a model rocket—with explosive results.

* [[Made of Explodium|Nitrogen Triiodide.]] Freakin' NI3. ''Staple'' of mischievous chemistry students and show-off professors across the world. Rather powerful crystalline explosive, sensitive enough to go off when ''a big fly lands on it''. However, unlike most unstable stuff, it may be handled more or less safely upon mixing and is primed only when it dries up. Hence the popularity.

R.W.Wood's biography (which in itself is twice more entertaining than 9/10 of "[[Mad Scientist]]" fiction, and half again weirder) specifically mentions his nitrogen-iodine experiments. He was already pyro-savvy, so he split it into several little piles... and when he tested first dried pinch its explosion scattering a good spoonful of almost ready touch-sensitive explosive crystals through the entire room...

Once in Soviet times students in Voronezh University ladies' dormitory were quite annoyed by their porter due to her [[Moral Guardians|habit of night patrols]]. Enter the... Chemistry students and enigmatic faint smell of ammonia rising from the corridor's floor. Next morning she was found sitting atop her stool with boots. This little experience apparently taught her something valuable about wisdom of ''not'' sharing one's insomnia with everyone around and about peaceful coexistence with bunch of crazy students in general.