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Sulfur Hexafluaride is denser than air and non-toxic! It's also used in a long-term plug if your retina gets detatched! - Link
Sulfur Hexafluoride Gas - A Boat Floating On Air
Posted by Bre Pettis |
Jan 13, 2007 11:53 AM
Science |
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Two little points:
1. It's "gets", not "get's".
2. It's "fluoride", not "flouride".
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Doh! Thanks Karyudo!
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It's not always trivial to get your hands on sulfur hexafluoride, so here's the maker-oriented version which you can do at home: float regular bubbles on carbon dioxide.
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My environmental analyist girlfriend, while enjoying the magic of it, couldn't help but point out that SF6 is one of the strongest greenhouse gasses, providing 22,000 times the global warming potential of CO2.
If I do the math right, a 10-gallon aquarium of this stuff has the same global warming power as burning 577 gallons of gas, or about three cubic meters of dry ice. So Windell's right; makers should stick with dry ice for this one.
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I had a detatched retina and had this stuff in my eye for a couple months. Not a fun ordeal when you have to live life for about 8 weeks with your eyes looking directly down...24 hours a day.
No good, but it did save the vision in my right eye.
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I had a prof in college who would inhale a little bit of this stuff and it lowered his voice way down. Think Helium in reverse. It sounded a little evil. Although he really didn't have to inhale much at all. He actually had to force it out of his lungs when he was done.
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Funnier example of this effect:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjCmwuGKR6g
comparing helium and SF6. I love makezine!
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