LG John

We had a sort of pre-crimbo night out pub lunch at the office today and were having the usual random conversations over a beer after the meal. For some reason we were talking about birds and in particular Parotts (sp?). Using my recently acquired scoobynet knowledge (see SN is useful ) I advised that they live for ages, are difficult to look after, etc, etc.

At this point one of the normally quiet guys pipes up that one of his mates had a pet bird that broke its leg. To solve this he attached a match (splint) to the birds leg to allow it to heal. All was going swimmingly until the bird decided it didn't like the strange object attacted to its leg and started scrapping it against everything in its cage..........including the sandpaper on the bottom. Cue friction, cue flame, cue bird fireball, cue death ROTLFMAO .....but also

davegtt

lmao cracking stuff, shame though you would have thought the idiot would have lit the match and put it out first though dont you think

Markus

ditto! would have thought it would have been a pre-lit match or maybe use a cocktail stick or two.

funny though!

LG John

It is fairly mince, you can even pick the 'dangerous' (what's the stuff called???) part of a match off with your nail

chaos.

A match wouldnt fry anything, It would just singe its feathers and burn its leg off.

Unless his mate covered it in petrol.


cha0s

Paulo P

iTrader: (42)

That's a bit mad sounding!

andrewdelvard

Strange. We must share mates. Mine told me the exact same story last time I was up in Bolton.

ajm

Urban Legend (in a lake!)

http://www.maxpages.com/folklore/Exploding_Budgie

(site has annoying popups)

and http://www.snopes.com/critters/mishaps/budgie.htm (popup free)

[Edited by ajm - 12/16/2003 4:55:04 PM]

eClaire

It's called Phosphorus, dear

Hobo_Jojo

when anyone says "a mate of mine says/did this" take it with several pinches of, no make that a full shaker of salt.

Hammy Hamster

Belly button fluff.

LG John

Wow, I'm knocked flat by your knowledge

I must admit when I heard it my first though was 'surely this is an urban legend' but the guy that told us is a REALLY quiet lad and doesn't have much to say for himself. He'd be unlikely to bother with a story he didn't truely believe himself. Nevertheless, fact or fiction I laughed my *** off and that's good enough for me

LG John

Oh, and Claire I haven't spent the best part of my adult life destroying my lungs so I don't know much about matched

Scooby96

Kenny, just waiting for the thread:

what funeral for my mates parrot!!

eClaire

Most of my adult life. What? A whole 4 years!

Isn't it great to be 20. And FYI I learnt that at school.

It is an essential component of living systems and is found in nervous tissue, bones and cell protoplasm. Phosphorus exists in several allotropic forms including white (or yellow), red, and black (or violet). White phosphorus has two modifications. Ordinary phosphorus is a waxy white solid. When pure, it is colourless and transparent. It is insoluble in water, but soluble in carbon disulphide. It catches fire spontaneously in air, burning to P4O10, often misnamed as phosphorus pentoxide. When exposed to sunlight, or when heated in its own vapour to 250°C, it is converted to the red variety. This form does not ignite spontaneously and it is a little less dangerous than white phosphorus. The red modification is fairly stable and sublimes with a vapour pressure of 1 atmosphere at 417°C.

Isolation

Here is a brief summary of the isolation of phosphorus. Originally, phosphorus was extracted from urine. However there is plenty of phosphorus in phosphate ores and those ores represent the usual source for commercially produced phosphorus. There is normally no need to make phosphorus in the laboratory as it is readily available commercially.

The usial route involves heating a phosphate with sand and carbon in an electric furnace. It is highly energy intensive.

2Ca3(PO4)2 + 6SiO2 + 10C (1500°C) 6CaSiO3 + 10CO + P4

The reaction may proceed via "phosphorus pentoxide", P4O10.

2Ca3(PO4)2 + 6SiO2 + 6CaSiO3 + P4O10

P4O10 + 10C 10CO + P4

Courtesy of www.webelements.com




Edited to add: At least some of us paid attention at school!

[Edited by eClaire - 12/16/2003 5:50:57 PM]

Brendan Hughes

Bit like some of the material on scoobynet then...

Daz34

My pet hamster died yesterday ...................






























It fell asleep at the wheel

eClaire

lmfao

LG John

Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaahoooooooooooooooser

bluenosewrx

iTrader: (2)

your quiet mate probably sits in front of a computer all night(geek)exactly the same as we are DOH!!

ajm

once you tell him that he has been exposed as a fraud on the internet he will probably never speak again!

LG John

Nah, he's not a net buff! He's the sort that does yoga, reads novels and talks to his plants