FIVE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS WERE BURNED THIS MORNING (Tuesday) when they failed to follow directions in a chemistry lab experiment. The Orlando Sentinel reports that the Seminole County, Florida, students at Hagerty High School were conducting a demonstration on rocket propulsion principles when the accident happened.
WESH-TV Ch.2 filed this video report shortly after noon:
Despite the hype, it was not an explosion. From the Sentinel:
The students were “slightly singed,” according to Principal Sam Momary, who described the injuries as looking like a “slight sunburn.”
Momary said students were conducting a common experiment demonstrating that ignited gases in a closed container will propel the container. The experiment was keyed to the planned Ares I-X rocket launch at Cape Canaveral today, which since has been postponed.
The experiment involves putting a small amount of ethanol in a bottle lying on its side on a table and then holding a match to the opening. The gas ignites and the bottle shoots a few inches on the table.
Momary said the student who lit the gases was not injured. But five others were standing behind the opening, although they had been told to stand to the side. Gases shot out a few feet and burned them, he said.
Read the entire story from the Sentinel HERE.
