Friday, July 3, 2009

Happy 4th of July...Try This at Home

Happy Fourth to everyone. So what is the science angle here? It is all about making some of your own fireworks.

It is pretty easy to make snakes out of baking soda, sugar and alcohol or lighter fluid. For a little fountain, try the famous Diet Coke and Mentos experiment. Sparklers are a little trickier but can be made at home. You can make firecrackers by extracting the powder from toy caps. A patriotic flaming alcoholic density column is a fine addition to any Fourth of July Celebration. You can make smoke bombs and fountains as well.

And all this might make you hungry...top it off with dry ice ice cream.

These are just a few of the many little science experiments you can do...I'll admit I left off some of the more dangerous ones I know because I want you to have a good Fourth of July!

Reprinted with permission from the Half-Astrophysicist Blog.

8 comments:

kkdither said...

In honor of Ms. Beejay, I have 18 snakes to light on fire tomorrow night. :) Happy 4th everyone!

drewzepmeister said...

We might to do some of this later.

Huck Finn said...

Platex dishwashing gloves and air compressors. Place a finger over an air gun and leave an inch or too slack off the end. Twist to seal and hold the seal tight some way. Inflate with the air gun. This is like a balloon popping. Think M80 to a balloon's lady finger in noise power.

Powdered sugar and potassium nitrate make a poor man's gun powder when combined properly. This mixture can be made to explode with the power of gun powder. Look into model rocketry for more info on safe handling.

hale-bopp said...

You want a bang, I recommend liquid nitrogen in a 2 liter soda bottle. Cap it and run.

First time I did this, it was so loud it set off car alarms!

OrbsCorbs said...

I met a guy in a bar in Chicago who made his own "firecrackers." They were like 1/4 sticks of dynamite. You'd light one and there's be an M80-like bang, but that was just the detonating cap, followed by this huge EXPLOSION. He lit on off down the street from the bar and I just happened to turn my ear toward it as it went off. My ear rang for a couple of days.

Anyway, I don't play with high or low explosives anymore. I am lucky to have all ten fingers and most of my hearing. Snakes would be fun, though. Where do you get them, kk?

kkdither said...

Dollar tree had them... yes, I'm frugal, {cough} cheap. Three boxes of 6 for a buck. They also had 3 packs of mini cones. They will prob fizzle for a few seconds of thrills.. Wheeee!

None of that crazy stuff for me. I want all 20 digits when the holiday is over.

Huck Finn said...

LOL HB. Not many have access to liquid Nitrogen. They do have access to dry ice, soda bottles and warm water.

2-1 Hydrogen and oxygen as found by splitting water and trapped in a soda bottle, then set off with a spark will also do the trick. Research water rocketry for this one.

Lots of legal and safe ways to make very loud noises.

Beejay said...

kk, I ran over a snake yesterday. I did it in honor of SER!