flame test
edyong | May 26, 2009For many of us, the most memorable bits of school chemistry classes were lessons where we ignited metal salts over a Bunsen burner to produce brightly coloured flames, from the lilac of potassium to the distinctive red of lithium. Now a group of chemists from Harvard University have found a way of using these colourful flames to transmit coded information.
Working in the lab of legendary chemist George Whitesides, Samuel Thomas III has developed the 'infofuse', a strip of flammable paper patterned with metal salts. As the strip burns, the metals change the colour of the flames, creating…
grrlscientist | February 7, 2008tags: flame test, identifying salts, chemistry, streaming video
Some elements can be identified by the colors they emit while burning. This is a quality that chemists use to identify salts, by burning them. In this video, a science teacher douses several exotic salts in methanol and ignites all of them at the same time. The results are really spectacular -- green, orange, yellow, blue, and purple flames burning side by side. [2:01]
Do not do this in your parents' kitchen or you will become very good friends with the local fire department, and probably the local police as well.