<p>The video:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THL2q8W1kqE[/url]”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THL2q8W1kqE</a></p>
<p>quote:
"Chemistry needs more humor, not less. One of my favorite recollections was being in the front row as the late Hubert Alyea of Princeton University gave a presentation. How could anyone not be fascinated by chemistry after watching and hearing Alyea sing the Princeton fight song as, in perfect time, colors changed in a beaker? Alyea also had a burner going on the lab bench in front of him. On the bench were several Coke bottles wrapped in tape. Before his talk, he had filled them with a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen.</p>
<p>At totally unpredictable intervals, he would quickly grab a bottle, pull off the cork, and hold the end to the flame. We would all jump at the ensuing loud bang, but after he had done this several times during his talk, we were like proverbial Pavlovian dogs. Then he grabbed a Coke bottle that had no cork in it and quickly held it to the flame. Although we had all tensed in preparation for the loud bang, of course nothing happened, and he explained why. Would I remember that today if the fundamental principles had instead been told in a dull, pedantic manner?"</p>
<p>Demonstrations have been a Princeton tradition ever since former chemistry professor Hubert Alyea '24 filled his lectures from 1930 to 1972 with spectacles like the “Old Nassau Clock Reaction,” in which three clear liquids are combined to create an alternatively orange and black solution.</p>
<pre><code>He challenged his students to determine the concentration of solutions needed to keep the reaction in time with “The Orange and the Black.”
</code></pre>
<p>The song: “The Orange and the Black”
(Lyrics by Clarence Mitchell 1889, Music by Ernest Carter 1888)</p>
<p>Although Yale has always favored
The violet’s dark blue,
And the many sons of Harvard
To the crimson rose are true,
We will own the lilies slender,
Nor honor shall they lack,
While the Tiger stands defender
Of the Orange and the Black.
We will own the lilies slender,
Nor honor shall they lack,
While the Tiger stands defender
Of the Orange and the Black.</p>
<p>Thro’ the four long years of college,
'Midst the scenes we know so well,
As the mystic charm to knowledge
We vainly seek to spell;
Or, we win athletic vict’ries
On the football field or track,
Still we work for dear old Prince-ton,
And the Orange and the Black.
Or, we win athletic vict’ries
On the football field or track,
Still we work for dear old Prince-ton,
And the Orange and the Black.</p>
<p>When the cares of life o’ertake us,
Mingling fast our locks with grey,
Should our dearest hopes betray us,
False Fortune fall away,
Still we’ll banish care and sadness
As we turn our mem’ries back,
And recall those days of gladness
'Neath the Orange and the Black.
Still we’ll banish care and sadness
As we turn our mem’ries back,
And recall those days of gladness
'Neath the Orange and the Black. </p>
<p>The demonstration:</p>
<p>The demonstration, more commonly known as the “Old Nassau Clock Reaction,” from Nassau Hall on the Princeton campus, was created by Hubert Alyea of Princeton University and may be found in his article in J. Chem. Educ. 1977, 54, 167. The colors developed, orange and black, are also the Princeton colors, and Professor Alyea is reputed to have sung the Princeton Fight Song while performing the demo.</p>
<p>The three solutions consist of</p>
<li>A starch and sodium hydrogen sulfite solution</li>
<li>A mercuric chloride solution</li>
<li>A potassium iodate solution. </li>
</ol>
<p>The orange color is a precipitate of mercuric iodide, and the black color comes from the “iodine clock reaction,” in which iodide is oxidized to iodine, giving the familiar blue complex with starch. The black color results from orange + blue = black.</p>
<p>After the addition of the third solution (containing KIO3), the reaction commences:</p>
<li>Sodium hydrogen sulfite reduces iodate to iodide and hypoiodous acid.</li>
<li>Iodide forms an orange precipitate with mercury(II) ion.</li>
<li>When the mercury(II) is exhausted, iodide is free to combine with hypoiodous acid to form molecular iodine, which in turn combines with more iodide to form I3-.</li>
<li>The I3- reacts with starch to form the familiar blue iodine-starch complex.</li>
</ol>
<p>More information about this great professor:
<a href=“http://alumni.princeton.edu/~ptoniana/alyea.asp[/url]”>http://alumni.princeton.edu/~ptoniana/alyea.asp</a></p>
<p>quote:</p>
<p>“Professor Alyea was known as a lecturer. He earned the nickname “Dr. Boom” from Russian observers of his demonstrations at the international science pavilion at the Brussels World’s Fair in the 1950s. Walt Disney attended these same lectures and told Alyea he had sparked an idea for a movie. Disney invited Alyea to Hollywood to give a demonstration for actor Fred MacMurray, who mimicked Alyea’s mannerisms for The Absent-Minded Professor . MacMurray later confessed he had never understood chemistry until he met Alyea.”</p>
<p>“Hubert N. Alyea, a professor emeritus of chemistry at Princeton University innovated in the teaching of science and served as the inspiration for Walt Disney’s movie The Absent-Minded Professor.”</p>
![http://alumni.princeton.edu/~ptoniana/alyeasq.jpg[/url]](http://alumni.princeton.edu/%7Eptoniana/alyeasq.jpg%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
