[Skid Marx]

AND, I once made a remark in a HS chemistry class which the self-proclaimed school genius took seriously.

Hell, I made a thermite flare and got the teacher to light it in the sink. Burned clean through the porcelain crucible and burned a hole in the granite. It was great.

[Myrddin]

My chemistry class collected red rust and clipped aluminum cans into fine chunks. Our thermite reaction was initiated on top of a sand surface with a little commercial grade thermite and a magnesium ribbon. The blob of steel that resulted was about the size of your fist. The amount of commercial grade thermite used was about a teaspoon of powder. The rest of the material was from the collected rust/aluminum cans. We knew what was going to happen before it was initiated, thus the sand box surface.

Years later, the same chemistry teacher made a little potassium perchlorate and sugar to create the classic purple volcano. That didn't turn out well. It detonated and blew off the edge of the lab table.