Okay, folks, let’s dive into this little experiment I did. I gotta say, it was a bit nerve-wracking, but hey, that’s part of the fun, right?
So, I started by gathering my “ingredients.”
- First, I got my hands on some regular old sugar. Just the plain white stuff from the grocery store.
- Then, I needed some potassium nitrate. I find a chemistry experiment kit has this.
I mixed these two up. The important part here is the ratio. What I did was about 60% potassium nitrate and 40% sugar. This can effect how it is going to work.
The Fiery Part
Now for the exciting bit. I put a tiny bit of the mixture on a non-flammable surface. I’m not trying to burn the house down, after all.
I lit it up with a lighter. Just a quick touch, and whoosh! It ignited, producing a thick, white smoke and a surprisingly intense flame. I made the mix of the potassium nitrate which is an oxidizer, and the sugar acted as the fuel. When I light them, the heat caused the potassium nitrate to decompose and release oxygen. The sugar, in turn, burned rapidly in the presence of that oxygen, creating a lot of heat and gases that expanded quickly.
After a few moments, I put the flame out. I checked the surface I did all this on. And that is it!
So, that’s the basic gist of it. I Messed with the ratios a bit, saw how it changed the burn, and generally just had a blast (pun intended!).
