February 27, 2012

Lick a Nail...

Lick a Nail! What?
What did you eat for breakfast today?
A bagel and coffee, a danish, oatmeal, an omelet, no breakfast...?

I was standing outside one summer day with some friends and among the group
was a nursing student.  As we were watching another friend clean up around their
car and grab a nail- the nursing student said, "since you didn't eat breakfast,
why don't you just lick the nail for the iron." 

So, long story short... I had to see for myself  SO-

Simply take some cereal that has a lot of iron in it like Total Cereal.


 Use anything that will break down the cereal- something like a little chopper, blender, mixer etc...


And try to get it to a powder the best you can.


The next step is put it into a zip lock bag and add some water, enough so that the powder is
not a powder. It's not going to be attractive, just a tan, mush.


 Take the strongest magnet you have, a regular refrigerator magnet is not strong enough.


As you start to run the magnet through the cereal mush... you will start to see black
pieces being pulled by the magnet. The black pieces are iron. If you bring the magnet towards the
corner, it is easier to see the iron gather.



Those black shaving looking things are iron literally from the cereal. The only thing in the bag is
Total cereal with some water. (the brown colored object to the right of the iron is just a bad job
of mixing the cereal completely.)


Isn't that pretty cool!  Iron shavings in our cereals!  The picture isn't the best... so you should try it
for yourself especially if you have kids for a cool experiment or if you are someone who likes to
see interesting things!


So, even though I titled this post... lick a nail.... just eat cereal. Don't REALLY lick a nail please.