I have never had a knack for getting labs to go right.

I could have predicted some of the problems we'd have with Oscar's science lab this morning, the one where you mix baking powder with various liquids in bottles sealed by balloons, and see how much gas evolves.

For instance, that the balloons I'd bought would be too small to put the required amount of baking powder in, or that they would be quite tight and hard to stretch over the bottles.  

Or that the baking powder would not disperse well with the liquid, leaving a dry cake of baking powder stuck to the bottom of the bottle, unable to be dislodged even with vigorous shaking.

Yeah, I could have foreseen that, and if I hadn't been in such a hurry, might have been able to set the experiment up to run a little bit more smoothly.  I had Oscar write a list of problems and difficulties with the experiment, and things we learned from them.

What I couldn't predict:  that three-year-old little sister would run shrieking and weeping with terror out of the room at the sight of the expanding balloons, nearly tearing my pants off in her attempt to climb straight up my legs into my arms, out of fear that they would pop suddenly and loudly.

And that this performance would be repeated for every one of the six balloon-bottle-baking powder experiments of the day.

And that Oscar would need an extra pair of hands for most of the experiments (because the balloon necks were too tight for him to stretch over the bottles) so I would spend the morning alternately comforting a crying, frightened little girl, and peeling her off my body for long enough to act as laboratory assistant (while she screamed "Come BACK mommy!  Come BACK!"

I wish I could say that this was the sort of thing that drove me into theoretical rather than experimental work...

Comments

[Lori]

Huh...I wonder if an irrational fear of the potential for sudden, loud noises is hereditary? As a child, I spent every thunderstorm petrified of the horrible sound it would make if our house got struck by lightning. Or maybe it just has something to do with having 2 older brothers. :-)