How do i always get myself into these things? [UPDATE: thanks for the help OT]

[Fraggable]

Why hasn't anyone recommended diet coke + mentos yet?

 

[MrPickins]

Originally posted by: Specop 007

Originally posted by: TheChort

Originally posted by: Specop 007
You need to kick it up a notch. While the stuff you have is good, play around with other things too.
Magnesium. Sodium. Aluminum powder, iron filings. Fire impresses everyone from the young to the old.
Hell even flour, blown into a gas inside a coffee can with a candle burning will give enough boom to blow the top off the can.

im trying to go with more household materials on this one. The sodium is not really an option.
i didn't know iron filings burn
I'll check the website you gave for other stuff

Iron filings have to be mixed up.

Go with the flour in a coffee can for a coool, safe explosion.

My 9th grade chem teacher did that with lycopodium powder, although sifted four should work just fine. He set it up similar top this:

http://chemed.chem.purdue.edu/demos/main_pages/5.14.html

Although instead of using a bulb at the end of the hose, he just blew into it, and we used a large ~1gal coffee can with the lid on it. Made a nice 2 or 3 foot fireball.

This was the same teacher that showed us sodium and water, showed us how to make acetylene, blew up ballons we filled with the H2 and O2 from electrolosis, and various other pyro stuff. It's no wonder I got an A+ in the class.

With everyday materials, this is a good one also:

Originally posted by: mugs
Oh, you could suck an egg into a bottle with fire

 

[Electric Amish]

Originally posted by: Fraggable
Why hasn't anyone recommended diet coke + mentos yet?

Why haven't you learned to read yet?

 

[DrPizza]

magnet and piece of copper pipe
2-liter bottle rocket (no water, just air)
One really cool one I loved seeing another science teacher do was show how gases such as propane are *not* explosive on their own; it takes a certain percentage mixture with air for it to be explosive. He had a larger hole (1/4 inch? 1/2 inch? in the bottom of paint cans, and a much smaller hole in the lid. He filled the paint cans with propane (wasting quite a bit of propane, of course, to make sure the cans were pretty much all propane inside and no air/oxygen. You can do this in front of the kids, or you can fill them, then seal the holes with tape. Place the cans on a stand, explain what's in them. "Will it burn? Will it explode?" Regardless of the experiment, ALWAYS have the kids guess what's going to happen, then provide the explanation after it happens. Light the top hole on the lids of the cans. It'll burn like a candle. Since propane is lighter than air, it'll rise. As it burns, air mixes from underneath. Eventually (as long as 4 or 5 minutes later, if your pin hole is small enough), Fooooom! and the lid is blown off. By this time, you should be in the middle of another experiment, to get the kids to completely forget about the "candles."

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: middlehead
My 9th grade science teacher did something that encased our hands in fire but didn't hurt. I don't remember the specifics of it, though.

Rubbing alcohol would work just fine. The last thing in the world I'd ever do is something like that where the kid later tries to copy it and ends up severely burned.

For younger kids, *never* do things that they could easily do an approximation of and end up seriously injured.

 

[JonnyStarks]

Dip a 20$ bill in some isopropyl alcohol and light it on fire. If I remember right, it makes a huge flame around the bill, but the combustion is at too low a temperature to burn the bill, so it remains intact.
I'd say get that 99.9% pure isopropanol? Might want to try it on some regular paper first.

 

[ockky]

(dry ice + water) + closed plastic bottle = rocket ... takes awhile for the pressure to build ... i recommend standing some distance away

 

[TheChort]

Originally posted by: BooGiMaN
how exactly did you get yourself into this...were you trying to impress someone and told them you had done this before?

why isnt the teacher doing the experiments instead of someone that is asking for advice from pyros on an internet forum....

that's because it's a summer camp, not a school
and since all my friends (who are organizing the camp) know i'm a science guy, they asked me to do this.

great ideas guys
though there seems to be a bias towards burning stuff

 

[lozina]

perform a goatse for them

 

[MrPickins]

Originally posted by: ockky
(dry ice + water) + closed plastic bottle = rocket ... takes awhile for the pressure to build ... i recommend standing some distance away

That's not a rocket. That's a bomb. It's louder than a shotgun.
You can mess yourself up pretty bad with one of those.

Dont ask me how I know

 

[5to1baby1in5]

Originally posted by: Specop 007

Originally posted by: blinblue
They would probably like Coke+Mentos

I prefer hookers and blow, but then I am a bit older then 6th grade.

LOL :shocked::laugh:

Bill Nye The Science Guy has some stuff.

 

[Alienwho]

This is easy. Liquid Nitrogen.

Put stuff in it and throw it at the walls and watch it shatter into a million peaces. That's hours of entertainment.

 

[lozina]

Originally posted by: Alienwho
This is easy. Liquid Nitrogen.

Put stuff in it and throw it at the walls and watch it shatter into a million peaces. That's hours of entertainment.

yeah, like your hand!

 

[TheChort]

***Update****

I gotta say things went pretty well. The kids were really impressed. Thanks to all for the great suggestions, especially to 5to1baby1in5 for the Bill Nye website.
In my half hour slot I did the following experiments:

1. I had cut up a bunch of 'flowers' with four petals out of regular paper. I told the kids to fold each of the petals into the middle. Then they put the flower on its back on the water and they saw the petals open.

2. I blew up two balloons, one with water and one with air. I held a lighter under each, and lo and behold, the one with water didnt pop. Just to spice things up, I made one of the girls stand under the balloon with water as i held a lighter to it.

3. I showed them that a pebble and a large rock will fall at the same rate, even when thrown from a height of 20 ft.

4. I made them use the surface tension in a cup of water to make a paperclip float. Those that were successful got the bonus of me putting a few drops of soap in the cup and watching the paperclip immediately fall to the bottom.

5. And as my finale, Mentos + Diet Coke (8 mentos pieces)

 

[imported_LoKe]

Kickass. Good work!