[neact] Re: potassium chlorate and gummy bear
- From: CaryPQ@xxxxxxx
- To: neact@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2009 23:18:33 EST
Nancy (et.al.),
1) Remember that KClO3 is shock-sensitive, so you don't want to grind it
with sugar or sulphur or other reducing agents.
2) You don't want to use KClO3 anyway; it has too high a melting point.
3) Use NaClO3. Put a scoop in an evaporating dish on a tripod in the
hood. Gently heat it until it melts. It needn't completely melt. Then shut off
the
Bunsen burner and move it aside.
4) Stand back and toss in a gummy bear. After possibly a brief initiation
period it will go off like a rocket, sizzling and sparking and tossing ash
about (hence the hood) in addition to creating profuse smoke and vapors!
5) You can toss in any kind of candy, soft or hard. I collect old candy
and have a bag of it from which I toss Tootsie Rolls and other such items. The
kids love it! But keep them back from the hood and wearing safety glasses.
6) After you practice with this, you can adjust the amount of NaClO3 you
start with. Then keep this system as a dedicated evaporating dish for this
demo.
7) Have the students balance the equation for the reaction of NaClO3 with
C12H22O11. When they have trouble doing so, point out the white crystals in
the cooled evaporating dish. Then ask them "how many waters are present in a
molecule of sucrose?" So "what's left to burn with the released oxygen?"
8) Just be careful! This is a very reactive system!
Best,
Cary Kilner
University of New Hampshire
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