CWisgood wrote:
Figgy Pudding wrote:
Ah, chemistry--you make fools of us all, and that's why I'm majoring in you!
The first time I did a flame test, I couldn't understand why all the flames were turning out a lovely shade of violet, with a few other tones occasionally showing up.
In general, it's a bad idea to label your potassium sulfate solution as water.
Potassium is LILAC in flame test. :O
shapu wrote:
I always thought of it as more of a mauve.
Okay, in the future I shall be more precise about the way I describe colors on message boards. (The sad bit is, I picked out the color I dye my hair based on how pretty I find this flame. Perhaps I should just refer to it as Special Effects Virgin Rose?

)

(In case anyone's interested: that's actually KCl, but looks as close to what we're talking about as anything I can find in 20 seconds of googling.)
My lab section wound up about 2 weeks ahead of the others, so the week after we did flame tests, our prof got us to identify the compounds in sparklers and other little firecrackers that he'd bought.
...it's not a very good idea to set off firecrackers indoors, especially not next to the open glassware cabinet.
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