Tax Dollars Hard at Work

Friday afternoons are notoriously boring here within the walls of a government building. There are a few who think the quiet of Friday boredom is conducive for late working and those of us who completed their work earlier in the week to allow Friday afternoon flexibility. Being one of the latter, I was very excited to see the boys were goofing off as well this afternoon. Considering we are utilizing government time, money and personnel to entertain ourselves, I shall leave the guilty nameless and will not indicate if I had any participation beyond observation. The boys were setting off tubes like little rockets by placing a few pieces of dry ice in the tube, so as to build pressure and pop the tubes up off the ground. The question was raised whether or not a 50mL conical centrifuge tube could be blown apart if enough pressure was built up within the tube by the "melting" dry ice. Given the temperature outdoors, our hypothesis was tested. Unfortunately, we did not achieve success, but there was a nice pop when the cap was removed from the tube about 3 minutes later. A repeat experiment was not attempted at this time. Nevertheless, it was highly amusing to see 6 scientists huddled in an office looking out the window at a conincal tube, hoping it'll pop. That, my friends, are your government tax dollars hard at work!