weschem
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Christmas Demo Ideas
So Im supposed to come up with a few christmas themed demos for my universities chemistry club. So far I have the "silver tree" demo which is the
crystallization of silver from a silver nitrate solution on a coiled copper wire that has been immersed in it.
Anyone have any other good ideas?
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Hexavalent
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Do they have to be Christmas-related?
If not, then on Tuesday I've got to do a little demo for some parents and young children at parent's evening. I'm doing competition (thermite
reactions), "water starts a fire", the 'Bluebottle reaction', maybe an oscillating reaction and silver mirrors if that's any help.
[Edited on 11-11-2012 by Hexavalent]
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UnintentionalChaos
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Quote: Originally posted by Hexavalent  | Do they have to be Christmas-related?
If not, then on Tuesday I've got to do a little demo for some parents and young children at parent's evening. I'm doing competition (thermite
reactions), "water starts a fire", the 'Bluebottle reaction', maybe an oscillating reaction and silver mirrors if that's any help.
[Edited on 11-11-2012 by Hexavalent] |
You could silver mirror the inside of a clear glass ornament.
Department of Redundancy Department - Now with paperwork!
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tetrahedron
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barking dog reaction. i wouldn't settle for anything less.
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Eddygp
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yeah, check Hegelrast's video on that, in youtube
[Edited on 11-11-2012 by Eddygp]
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Mailinmypocket
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The traffic light reaction is cool, red...green, etc!
[Edited on 11-11-2012 by Mailinmypocket]
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Eddygp
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Burning magnesium in a CO2 brick is interesting... and solid CO2 is white as ice and magnesium oxide is bone-like white.
there may be bugs in gfind
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weschem
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These all sound really good. Especially the mirror ornament one. Yeah theyd prefer it to be somewhat christmas-y. Ive already got some pyro i want to
do with strontium for red and barium chloride for green.
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Triazine
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I second Eddygp's idea. For the winter holiday my professor made a "snow man" out of CO2 blocks and put a Mg fire in the head to make a Christmas
jack-o-lantern. Very cool.
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Morgan
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I once ground some iodine and ammonium nitrate together and then added some zinc dust. It self-ignited so fast after a quick stir I barely had time to
back away, but the color was fantastic. There was a beautiful blue smoke followed by a shift to violet it seemed. The thick column of billowing smoke
rose to a height of nearly 8 feet and was gone far too quickly. But the vividness evoked such a sense of wonder.
Less intimately mixed, you can add a drop of water or piece of ice to start it.
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kuro96inlaila
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If you have sodium polyacrylate you can make "instant snow" demo.Just add water to it and it will expand greatly into fluffy snow like substance.Fit
for christmast theme eh?
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MrHomeScientist
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I second the sodium polyacrylate idea - I've done that a number of times and it really does look like snow! It even feels cold, because of the
absorbed water evaporating away. It's very impressive to pour a large amount of water into a small amount of powder and watch it all get absorbed,
kids especially love it! And it's totally non-toxic so safe to play with.
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Mailinmypocket
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Then you can add a couple pinches of salt and mix it around with your hands and it turns back to liquid 
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Eddygp
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Precipitating silver from an AgNO3 solution... or precipitating uhhh calcium hydroxide (CaCl2+2KOH = 2KCl + Ca(OH)2
there may be bugs in gfind
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