Baking soda doesn’t just help baked goods rise. It also neutralizes acid. Want to know how I know this?
It was a typical Tuesday morning (well except for the fact that it was St. Patrick’s day so I was wearing green and orange). I woke up, ate breakfast, and got ready for school like usual. I arrived in first hour with seconds to spare, like usual. In first hour, Chemistry, we did a lab, which is relatively usual.
The lab involved Hydrochloric acid, and you can watch the first 5 minutes of this video to see what we did if you are really interested in chemistry and FIRE. The purpose of the lab was to combine the acid with zinc to create a reaction. Then we would capture the gas it released and determine its mass. We could light the collected gas on fire if we wanted, which was pretty cool.
However, near the end of the hour I looked down at my pants and noticed grayish colored spots on my bright orange pants. I first thought, “what is that?” Then I realized that I had somehow gotten acid on my pants! I had been measuring acid into a test tube, but I had no idea how it had gotten from the tube onto my pants! I told my teacher, Mr. L, that I got acid on my pants and he immediately got worried. “Do you feel any pain in your legs? Any burning sensations?” He questioned.
“No…” I replied.
“Do you have any extra pants at school!?” he asked.
“Uh… I have gym shorts in my gym locker,” I answered, realizing that he probably wanted me to put them on. Keep in mind, it was 30-something degrees outside, so most sane people weren’t wearing shorts.
“Go as fast as you can and put them on!” He urged. So, I speed-walked to the gym lockers to put on my gym shorts, navigating through a crowd of orchestra students as I made my way. I hadn’t thought that getting acid on my pants would be a big deal, but apparently it was a big enough deal that I had to freeze in gym shorts for the rest of the day! I yanked off my pants and slid on my shorts. I bounced out of the locker room and into the hallway. There were only about 3 minutes left of class, so the hallways were pretty crowded. I had to maneuver around people who started at me and my acid pants to get back to the classroom. When I arrived, everyone was silent as Mr. L instructed me to take off my shoes and socks. “What in the world?” I thought.
Then it dawned on me: I was going to have to be sprayed off with copious amounts of water by the green chem wash station!
Mr. L instructed me to rub baking soda all over my legs. It sounds ridiculous, but the baking soda would neutralize the acid that may or may not have been on my skin. So, I massaged baking soda all over my pale, hairy legs. I couldn’t stop laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation! After my legs were covered in baking soda, Mr. L hosed down my legs with copious (Mr. L’s favorite word) amounts of water. Then I wiped myself off with scratchy brown paper towels.
My shorts got a little wet, but it was better than possibly having acid on my legs and getting acid burns (well duh). Mr. L told me to contact my doctor if I felt any strange burning sensations. I couldn’t believe that a little acid could possibly be so harmful! Good thing it wasn’t! When my teacher finished hosing me down, he put baking soda all over my pants. We decided to leave the pants in his room so they could dry. With any luck, I’d be able to wear them again. The bell had rung a few minutes before (but after I was rinsed down so my whole class got to watch that), so I grabbed my stuff and headed out of the classroom. I thought to myself that it was a good thing I was taking team games, or I’d probably have to get hosed down in my underwear. Or Mr. Larson’s lab coat.
All I can say is, good thing I was wearing pants!
At tennis practice after school, I told my tennis buddies about my adventure to acid land. Now my tennis coach is calling me the acid queen. I brought them treats and he asked if he would hallucinate if he ate one (he didn’t). Haha.
Now I’ll change the subject to food since this is a food blog and stuff. The treats I brought to my teammates were Samoas, and they were DELICIOUS! 7 healthy, wholesome ingredients. They’re also vegan, gluten free, practically raw, and almost sugar-free! Win-win-win! The recipe is from Chocolate Covered Katie.com. I used water instead of agave nectar for the recipe because the coconut I used was sweetened. I also made them into bars because that’s a whole lot easier than cutting them into cookie shapes. Dare I say they were better than Girl Scout Cookies? They were!
Here’s a picture of them from my Instagram:
So, my St. Patty’s day consisted of acid and Samoas. An interesting mix. It was an interesting and eventful day! I hope yours was too (in a good way)!
Ps: have you ever been hosed off or had to use the eyewash machine in science class? Or, have you seen someone use it?