Mrs. Czyryca's Chemistry 535 |
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Mount Saint Joseph High School While reading a textbook on chemistry, I came upon the statement “nitric acid acts upon copper”…I had seen a bottle marked “nitric acid” on a table…I was willing to sacrifice one of the few copper cents then in my possession…A greenish blue liquid foamed and fumed over the cent and over the table. The air in the neighborhood of the performance became dark red. A great colored cloud arose…picking (the penny) up…I learned another fact—nitric acid not only acts upon copper but it acts upon fingers…I drew my fingers across my trousers and another fact was discovered. Nitric acid also acts upon trousers. -Ira Remsen, My First Hundred Years, 1970.
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