The other day I heard a kid say that if you pick up a neon tube and wave it round it lights up!
Its an impressively Darth Vaderesque idea but whether there's any science in it I don't know. I'm hoping you do!
*
Speaking of science have you ever heard of flour explosions? I remember messing with flour when I was a kid, sending my big brother a small packet of flour through the post, tightly wrapped so he'd have to pull it apart! Great fun but not advisable nowadays in these less innocent times.
But that's not the flour phenomena I mean. I've heard that flour can explode because of the friction built up in the sifting process. Clearly a lot of flour would create a lot of friction so I think we're talking about an industrial scale rather than making a few scones!
There is even a theory that the Great Fire of London may have ignited in this way at the unfortunate bakers on Pudding Lane.
Is there anything in this or is it just a load of old wheat chaff?
*
Reading my well-thumbed copy of Comics Collectables from 1996, an American book in my toilet library, I still come across words new to me. The latest one is Skediddler as featured on the Snoopy toy below.
I've no idea what a Skediddler is except to say that it sounds like a word I use all the time, skedaddle, meaning to leave somewhere like work, usually in a hurry, as in 'It's time to skedaddle' or 'let's skedaddle, it's home time!'.
Are they related?
