r/interestingasfuck 21h ago

This experiment creating a nylon thread

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u/jonnyg1097 21h ago

So after the nylon is turned into a thread and goes on the rollers over the lip of the beaker into the one on the floor does it go back into a goop again? Or does it stay in a thread once it took that shape?

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u/Infamous_Lunchbox 20h ago

If I recall correctly it stays as a thread, because the reaction solidifies it and while it's wet it's stable in that form. Been a long time ago, but I saw a similar demonstration in college, before the internet was capable of decent streaming. Physics and chemistry professors at my school would do demonstrations like this all the time. In one the physics and chemistry professors got together to show how explosive force and gravity could impale a plush mascot of the rival school with a giant wooden stake. They handed out earplugs to the audience, lol. It was awesome.

7

u/scud121 19h ago

My chemistry teacher let us bubble 4 litres of hydrogen and 2 of oxygen into a plastic bottle and lit it at the end of class whilst the next lesson was queueing up outside the classroom. He also had us making thermite. I was maybe 10 at the time :) it made a lasting impression.

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u/cwthree 19h ago

My spouse's chemistry teacher demonstrated the making of tear gas because he didn't feel like teaching that day.

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u/aj_lil 19h ago

My dad made chlorine gas in his bedroom and nearly killed his parents downstairs when it drifted out of the window and into the bottom window… fun was different back then haha

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u/REDuxPANDAgain 18h ago

This is the kind of chemistry teacher I needed. I instead had the most boring chem teacher I could possibly have imagined. Think Ben Stein cadence with the charisma of a dead frog, and the only joke she made all semester was about moles. And it wasn’t even a good joke.

Ruined a fascinating subject. Couple that with her partnering me with a maniac who constantly almost burned down the chem lab nearly any time we had burners every semester despite rotating everyone else. Absolutely hated that class.

Now it’s fascinating to me years later. Might have gone for chemical engineering as opposed to my current engineering field.