Molecules: You'd better learn to live with them.
Potassium chlorate, KClO3, is quite oxygen-dense and a potent oxidant. It is used in what we called "whippersnappers" and the suppliers called "Pop-Pops" as kids, along with silver fulminate. There is a singular irony in that the wimpiest firework, the one we could buy even in my solidly blue no-fireworks mommy state, contains two components of some dangerous explosives. But we're talking micro- to milligrams, so don't get any ideas.
Oh, who am I kidding, you just want to see it destroy a gummi bear:
Physical Science
Environment
Comments
I love how the Gummi bear clings desperately to the side of the tube before being murdered so horribly.
Now, is there any K chlorate in my lab.....?
Posted by: Chris | August 28, 2008 1:24 AM
Um, inside a building? fume hood?
Posted by: KMSL | August 28, 2008 8:25 AM
Methinks the St. Albans science department did not approve the making of this video.
Posted by: Knuckler | August 28, 2008 4:40 PM
poor lil bear.
Posted by: Abstruse | August 29, 2008 4:24 AM
Is this experiment done by the same bonehead who exploded a hydrogen-filled balloon inside a fume hood? This reeks of the same kind of idiocy. There are numerous safety issues with the way this experiment was conducted.
Posted by: DieFundie | August 29, 2008 11:04 AM
If the tube was a little bit more narrow, it almost sounds like the bear is screaming for help. ^^
Exothermic reactions always were my favorite...
(But yeah, there should have been a little more in the way of safety going on there. It's not like he was actually hurt, but if he was, he would have felt like an idiot. At 0:20, he actually sticks his hand above the tube. -facepalm- )
Posted by: Jita | September 21, 2008 2:06 PM
Yes, it does sound like the bear is screaming... My science teacher did this one for us, but he did it in a fume hood, and was sure to use pyrex instead of a glass test tube because this reaction gets hot enough to shatter normal glass! The guy in the video was definitely not being safe, and I hope there were no students in his room... Fun to watch, but definitely a DON'T TRY THIS @ HOME experiment. I love the pretty pink flame...
Posted by: BK | September 26, 2008 8:42 PM