Friday, September 16, 2005

NaOH vs HCl

Friday, September 16, 2005
Right! So today was our second practical class. We started with voulmetric analysis. Yesterday was the first. Our firt experiment was to determine the concentration of sodium hydroxide with Hcl being the standard solution i.e whose conc. is known.
The thing was, we had the pippet through which we had to suck NaOH upto a certain level indicated on the pippet itself( 20 ml). Yesterday we were practicing using water, since this was our first lab class. I was like jeez man, wtf is this crap.
Anyways, today was the real thing. We were using dil Hcl ofcourse. So me pal n me started doing the experiment. Every thing was going fine, we were getting marginal accurate readings, we had a nice spot by the window, the pyramids of the record books acted as decent chairs. We were taking turns sucking the pippet. While one would do that, the other would do stuff like washing the apparatus, handling the burrete etc.
"Reading no. 4" I jotted down on my observation book.
Everything was smooth, and then suddenly
"Aaargh!, pppha! phew," I had sucked a little too much, and it went all the way into me mouth. I was like , "Rishabh what the fuck is u r problem man, u've just taken in caustic soda, the stuff that squishes u r proteins and makes u r skin to pulp". I spat the shit. It tasted not all that bitter, it was just weird. Tasted a little like flour, but then the taste was the last thing on my mind wasnt it, it ws my tongue that i was worried bout!!!
I screamed, "PANI!!!!". My pals , who possesed a little bit of smartness, got me a glass of water, or shall i say a flask of water, or shall i say a flask of water from the same tap under which we wash the apparatus. But this was not a time to think bout all that crap. For a split second i thought what if the water+NaOH mixture explodes in my mouth, but the idea evaporated the second i thought of it, the absurdity of the moment stooped me to this level of thinking!
So i drank the water, gargled and spat at the sink. People started staring at me. Some puzzled, some smirking, some just staring. T'was weird, weird i tell ya. But this isnt the worst of it all. The after affect. My tongue started to get this burning sensation. It was as if a lil kid with large claws was scratching my tongues surface again and again mercilessly. It was awful. And it didnt stop. It is STILL fucking burning, though the intensity has decreased exponentially. My friend gladly agreed to do the remaining of the suckin of the pippet, thank god for him. I am content with writing readings and filling up flasks, for atleast another 2 classes.

2 comments:

Mia

i stopped reading aftr volumetric analysis.. (i'm still living up the final days of holidays jeez).


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hahahah
srry, but you're not the first :) i've seen friends choking and accidentally reaching for another chemical instead of watah. but hey, its fun lol unless of course you're the one who swallows the darn thing

Rishabh Kaul

fun eh?

 
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