i knew there was a reason...

[dmw]

i didn't go in to chemistry
from a flocked post, a link: http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/things_i_wont_work_with/
eg: "also hypergolic with such things as cloth, wood, and test engineers"

Comments

[reverancepavane]

I got to the seventh word of the title before I uttered an "Are they insane?"
Excellent column.
Rumours that I have friends who are playing around with extremely hypergolic rocket fuels (trifluorides anyone?) are totally unfounded. Rumours that their testbed engines melt before producing measurable thrust are also somewhat less totally unfounded.
[ETA: And reading on a bit further I see that they too have encountered such wonderous (not!) stuff. Sometimes I'm glad I'm a nice safe nuclear physicist...]
[ETA2: And my favourite too – perchloric acid! It actually has a use? That is apart from exploding when someone in China sneezes... (Which was my introduction to it.)]

[hnpcc]

My reason for not going on with Chemistry was that it smelled. :-)

Which is, of course, why I continued with bacteria. Go figure.

[bungo]

Supersonic pyrex fragments.

These rocket engineers also have a demonstration where they combust old shoes with LOX. And I don't mean the bagel spread.