The office-pranks series; The sodium polyacrylate test ...
After the initial prank with the annoy-a-tron, I received my fare share of revenge-pranks. Needless to say, my coffee was polluted with oregano and salt all the time. A nice one was when they had lowered my electric desk down on my office chair, and unplugged it….
My next prank involved a small bottle named “STIFF”, obtained on a marked in Denmark. The description on the bottle was very sparse and desides that this chemical would stiffen water and coffee almost instantly, the whole “declaration” was Saltkalciumpolymer. And of course “Guranteed not poisonous” …. How reassuring!
After some searching on the net, I couldn’t find anything on saltkalciumpolymer, but “polymer” revealed that that the compound has something to do with long polymer molecule chains… After even more research I have concluded that sodium polyacrylate is closest. Sodium polyacrylate is in the form of gel-buds or powder and its unique thing is that it can absorb between 300 and 800 times its own weight. This is the stuff that make baby diapers dry!!!
In the clip below you get the idea;
Now, I was soo lucky when I added just half a teaspoon of this chemical to his coffee. The coffee did not stiffen right away, only at the bottom!!
After a few sips he understood that something was wrong with his coffee, and we had a good laugh when I demonstrated the powder …
When you dive into sodium polyacrylate on the net, you find that the stuff also can make “instant snow” …
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