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Author: Subject: I want to hear your favorite chemistry demonstrations
Deathunter88
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[*] posted on 24-3-2016 at 10:30


Quote: Originally posted by Mailinmypocket  
This isn't the coolest or my favorite but I did find it original, that's for sure. Blue bottle demo, edible style.

http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/color-changing-powerade


Quote: Originally posted by MrHomeScientist  
That's astonishing. Great find!

The standard blue bottle requires dextrose, sodium hydroxide, and methylene blue. In his version, the dextrose would be from the Sweet N Low and I imagine the dye is in the Powerade. But tonic water is acidic, so there must be something in the cinnamon Altoid, and only the cinnamon variety, that basifies the solution. Very very interesting. I wonder how he discovered something like that; seems like a pretty random combination.


I hope you guys realise that was an April fools joke and does not actually work. (I admit I got fooled when I watched it the first time :D)

[Edited on 24-3-2016 by Deathunter88]
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MrHomeScientist
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[*] posted on 24-3-2016 at 10:33


Damn! He got me good.

I may actually have a chance to meet him next month, so I'll have to accost him for his treachery!
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ave369
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[*] posted on 24-3-2016 at 11:53


Neutralization of sulfuric acid with bicarbonate of soda, with crystal violet added to the acid. Because of it, not only it foams, it displays nice color changes from yellow to violet.



Smells like ammonia....
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[*] posted on 24-3-2016 at 18:31


MrHomeScientist

My Kl is a saturated solution, I add just enough water to disolv the 5g of Kl,

I also thought the amount of soap could be diluting the reaction but when I used considerably less the reaction improved only slightly,

I did do a quick test of the peroxide by dropping a piece of MnO2 into a sample of each, the two old bottles of peroxide reacted mildly, the fresh bottle reacted strongly and produces a thick amount of O2 vapour from the test tube, I'll test the exact concentration of the peroxide like you suggested.

I'll try your measurements and report back

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Velzee
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[*] posted on 24-3-2016 at 19:25


My favorite demonstrations that my chemistry showed us are: metallic sodium verses water, making/igniting gunpowder, the "screaming" gummy bear, and the power of methanol(shooting a five gallon water jug across the room using only a few drops of methanol). But I honestly can't get enough of the old 'pop!' you get when igniting hydrogen gas in a test tube.



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[*] posted on 25-3-2016 at 03:26


Hot ice is simple and nice, thermite reactions of course :D, potassium permanganate + sulfuric acid, explosion of plastic bottle filled with dry ice, pyrophoric iron.



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brubei
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[*] posted on 25-3-2016 at 03:30


yeast fermentation, beer, yogourt

interdisciplinarty is fun too
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100PercentChemistry
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[*] posted on 25-3-2016 at 09:25


Fascinated by oscillating reactions. So little are known.
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Dan Vizine
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[*] posted on 31-3-2016 at 12:53


Manganese thermite. Outside and from a distance.




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100PercentChemistry
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[*] posted on 1-4-2016 at 07:09


Simple yet amazing reacrions.
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[*] posted on 19-4-2016 at 16:52


My favorite demonstration that I have seen (not performed) is the endless nylon rope trick produced from hexamethylenediamine and sebacoyl chloride which I saw performed at the Dow Chemical pavilion at the New York World's Fair in 1964 when I was 7 years old.

I have wanted to get the chemicals to perform this myself, and I have a quote for them. Anyone interested in a getting set up for this demonstration also?
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[*] posted on 19-4-2016 at 17:08


I will be doing that one for my class in the next couple of weeks.
I have not really found it satisfying -- My attempts have consistently turned out clumpy. I thought the chems were old and deteriorated but even buying new ones didn't help. Let's see how we do this year. I might make the solutions more dilute and see how that works.




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[*] posted on 24-4-2016 at 08:13


Cellulose nitrate, from nitrating cotton balls.
Bleaching a red potato or onion with sulphur dioxide gas (from metabisulphite and dilute acid).
Ammonium dichromate volcano.
Reacting tin sheets with a few mL of bromine in a large test tube. Very strong exotherm. The liquid is impure tin tetrabromide, it solidifies when holding the tube under cold running water.
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[*] posted on 12-5-2016 at 03:09


I have been sitting on these for a while. They contain a number of great and dramatic chemistry demonstrations. many of the are a bit on the dangerous side. Some use chems that are not readily available. But there are a bunch of classics and some lesser-known and very cool reactions.

Enjoy.


These might be suitable for uploading to the SM library.

Attachment: Chemical Demonstrations Resource Book 1.pdf (6.1MB)
This file has been downloaded 5351 times

Attachment: Chemical Demonstrations Resource Book 2.pdf (6MB)
This file has been downloaded 1293 times





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skip
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[*] posted on 12-5-2016 at 17:18


luminol fountain
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JJay
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[*] posted on 12-5-2016 at 22:05


Chem Player has done some pretty cool cyanide demonstrations recently



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j_sum1
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[*] posted on 7-10-2016 at 22:22


I recently did chlorine / acetylene spontaneous combustion. Nice and dramatic. Procedure in book 2, linked two posts upthread. Experiment 101, page number 164.



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Morgan
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[*] posted on 8-10-2016 at 06:05


Quote: Originally posted by j_sum1  
I have been sitting on these for a while. They contain a number of great and dramatic chemistry demonstrations. many of the are a bit on the dangerous side. Some use chems that are not readily available. But there are a bunch of classics and some lesser-known and very cool reactions.

Enjoy.


These might be suitable for uploading to the SM library.


The lycopodium balloons seemed like a clever way to atomize the powder (page 103 book 1) and enhanced by using oxygen.
Also the other fuels that didn't work for the author but were suggested sounded worth a try or challenge.

PROCEDURE B
Place about 0.5 g (about I teaspoon) of lycopodium powder in each of two like colored balloons, about 1 g (about 1 teaspoon) of corn starch in each of two more balloons. and about 1 g (about 1 teaspoon) of flour in the last two balloons. Inflate one balloon in each pair with compressed air and the other with oxygen. In sequence. place each balloon on a ring attached to a stand and ignite with a candle mounted on a meter stick. Observe each explosion and note the differences in sound intensity and flame size. Note the effect of combustion in the oxygen-filled balloons compared to the air filled
balloons.
Although Reinstein and Shaver [21 suggest using additional solids, such as powdered milk, powdered sugar, and coal (ground with methanol and allowed to dry), we have not had success with these substances.

Also I wonder if a flame of hydrogen and chlorine would emit enough UV light to fire off a vessel of hydrogen and chlorine instead of using a UV LED, magnesium ribbon, sunlight, or 300 watt slide projector bulb. Sort of a variation on a theme of this clip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBF3cfsPPOM

Or might the light from these high voltage modules I purchased long ago activate hydrogen and chlorine inside a stoppered quartz tube if held near? They're tiny sparks but kind of bright on the eyes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d33_Fhgy5Dg

Perhaps if you had a quartz prism and full spectrum light source it might be fun to darken the room and move the test tube of hydrogen and chlorine along the rainbow and try to see if it fires.

[Edited on 8-10-2016 by Morgan]
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Morgan
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[*] posted on 31-1-2017 at 08:07


Yesterday I was toying with a pale yellow mushroom that forms a sack with a goodly amount of spores inside, the kind that billow a lot of smokey spores when popped. The mushroom wasn't some perfectly round kind you sometimes see but an odd very light weight, pale yellow and brown, elongated bumpy membrane somewhat egg-shaped and it didn't seem to have an pronounced attachment point where it rooted to the ground. So the thought was to see how the spores might burn if held next to a lit Bic lighter.
Surprisingly, when the partially split sac of spores was compressed near a flame the fireball the burning spores made was quite perky, reminiscent of lycopodium powder. So if you had a large amount of these which were collected for their spores, perhaps they'd be a comparable/alternative "dragon's breath" source, slightly quirky or road less traveled.

I wonder if you had someone standing by with a lit propane torch if this puffball spore cloud would burst into flames?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TeFsg9e-ks

After looking over some photos I think it's possible that the mushroom I found was an earthstar as there were a few dozen banana peel looking things in my lawn that came after some rains. If you look at the 3rd photo that's sort of what my flammable spore ball looked like but more of a potato shape without the perfect round shape with a pointy top.
http://www.realmonstrosities.com/2013/06/earthstar.html
Or it could have been something like this poisonous earthball.
http://www.wildutah.us/html/plants_scenery/h_mushroom_earthb...


[Edited on 31-1-2017 by Morgan]
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Chlorine
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[*] posted on 31-1-2017 at 13:03


My absolute favorite demonstration is the formation of Aluminium tri Iodide.

3g of Iodine and 4g of powdered aluminum added to a wide mouthed crucible. Once thoroughly mixed, add enough water to wet the mixture. Since the reaction is extremely exothermic the excess iodine sublimes into a beautiful purple vapor.
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[*] posted on 2-2-2017 at 15:00


Quote: Originally posted by j_sum1  
I recently did chlorine / acetylene spontaneous combustion. Nice and dramatic. Procedure in book 2, linked two posts upthread. Experiment 101, page number 164.

Would this work with methylacetylene? A friend borrowed one of those yellow propylene torches from me and used it all up, so he gave me back an old one his dad wasn't using, that actually had real MAPP gas in it. I don't see why it wouldn't work, but don't want to do anything stupid either.

I tend to be biased towards demonstrating reactions I've personally been working on, so showing the reaction between aluminum and galinstan, and then water is always fun.

Methanol + boric acid poured on the sidewalk and set on fire at night is always really cool. Methanol and propylene glycol will both burn with a green flame, but neither isopropanol nor ethanol will.

The haloform reaction can be impressive to some people, although you don't necessarily want to show grade schoolers how to make chloroform.

The three-stage thermite reaction is pretty impressive if you are able to do it outside. Basically, you mix thermite like usual, then mix potassium permanganate with aluminum and put it on top of that. Add a little extra potassium permanganate on top, then drizzle glycerin on top and step back. The KMnO4 will oxidize the glycerin, eventually producing enough heat to cause it to catch on fire. This will set off the flash powder underneath it, which in turn will ignite the thermite. It makes for a pretty dramatic sequence of events.
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[*] posted on 2-2-2017 at 16:19


I think you would get a reaction. But I would try small scale first. Changing your fuel molecule will undoubtedly change the kinetics and you really don't want something too vigorous or getting out of control.
The nice thing about this demo is that the acetylene is produced in situ from solid CaC2 and then reacts with the Cl2. This gives a series of pops and flashes that stay reasonably well contained.
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[*] posted on 3-2-2017 at 01:47


I like doing calcium metal in water - it's the about the most reactive things I'm comfortable letting six year olds handle ( with a lot of supervision ), they get to light the hydrogen and no one ever does calcium, plus most kids will tell you 'calcium is bones' - even many adults don't realise it's a soft white metal. You can burn pieces in air as a finish to the session.
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[*] posted on 3-2-2017 at 02:01


I have always had difficulty in getting Ca to ignite.
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[*] posted on 3-2-2017 at 03:30


Quote: Originally posted by Scalebar  
I like doing calcium metal in water - it's the about the most reactive things I'm comfortable letting six year olds handle ( with a lot of supervision ), they get to light the hydrogen and no one ever does calcium, plus most kids will tell you 'calcium is bones' - even many adults don't realise it's a soft white metal. You can burn pieces in air as a finish to the session.

Aluminum/gallium/indium alloy at 96:3:1 is air-stable, reacts vigorously with water to generate hydrogen, can be safely handled with bare hands, as long as they're dry, and even when they're wet, the worst that'd happen is a mild burn from the heat of the reaction. The gallium and indium can be recycled afterwards. Not sure if this information is useful to you or not, but if you're ever in a bind, it could work as a decent stand-in.
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