Smokin' Hot Fun!

Monday's School features Smoke Bombs!
Well, first we did the experiment that was in the actual Chemistry Chapter.(Apologia High School Chemistry CD Rom)
ThermometerBeakerWaterIceAlcohol Burner
First, filled the beakers 3/4 with ice, then added water.Stirred 5 minutes.Took the temp.It should be 0.0 Celsius.Most thermometers are off up to 2 degrees.They recorded their thermometers for sake of calibration.
Then they lit the burner and recorded temps every minute(of the ice water)They marked time/temp of when all the ice had melted.

I thought we had 3 glass beakers, but I only found 2, so Ki used a jar.
it cracked at about 37 Celsius.WATER MESS all over the table as the bottom fell out.

*NOTE TO SELF- BUY MORE GLASS BEAKERS
And I thought I had 3 of the lab thermometers. Only found 2. Gavin used Ki's instant-read meat thermometer.
Which was pretty accurate. Gavin took his water to boiling.

*note to self: buy another lab thermometer.
They seemed to enjoy this in an educational capacity. Tracking the movement on the thermometer. Watching for changes.Dealing with faulty equipment. Marking their charts.
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Next came the even they have been waiting for since we started Chem class.SMOKE BOMBS! click: How To Video
2 parts sugar3 parts Potassium Nitrate KNO3KNO3 is sold as Salt Peter/stump remover, but we had trouble finding itso we ordered straight KNO3 online.

just heat & stir those two in a skillet until it looks like light creamy peanut butter.

pour into glops on foil. (my boys did 1 big glop, then broke it apart)
cool.
take outside.
Light.
(and stand back)Next time we should add sodium bicarbonate to make it burn a little more slowly here is a small part of this big mess.

The Fire Breathing (click for how to video) didn't work too well.It was mostly a mess. We used the bunsen burners. Next time we need a NOT windy day and a stick with fire.but we had a couple good tries.
and this was thee messiest still. the boys covered in cornstarch, cornstarch all over the back porch.
THREE Big Messes in ONE day! how much more fun can there be?
and then there was math and reading. but that's boring blog material.Here is what Ki wrote about writing in his writing journal:
Writing is LAME and should be illegal because it is LAME. It is mucho boring and LAME so we should not have to learn something that is illegal and LAME. Wait, i have to shoop my whoop....BLAAAAAAHHHHH.....Ok. back to LAME writing i shouldgo to jail because it is illegal.
I guess I'm in BIG trouble. (so VOTE for my blog)


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