Yesterday we made a toilet bowl cleaner and aluminum foil fire-cracker for the first time. It's pretty simple to make, and somewhat cool. Here's what you do. Take a bottle and fill it with Aluminum Foil (the more aluminum surface space, the faster this works). Then spray a bunch of "The Works" brand, toilet bowl cleaner into the bottle, cap and shake the bottle, and throw.
If it doesn't appear to work, DO NOT APPROACH BOTTLE. It took ours about 3-4 minutes to finally explode. The explosion resulted in an invisible flash (that I'm assuming was there :-) and a plume of smoke about 12' high! The first one that we made we thought was a dud, so we started working on a second one, when all of a sudden there was a bang behind us as the one in the yard finally exploded.
It appears that the reaction between the aluminum foil and the toilet bowl cleaner builds up flammable gasses and heat. Once the temperature reaches the flash point, all the gasses in the bottle explode. Resulting in a somewhat satisfactory pop.
Please note that this should only be tried under close adult supervision, and I will not be held liable for any injury, loss, inconvenience, annoyance, or anything else that may result from this experiment.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Jonathan,
Make sure that Nathan reads over your disclaimer, so as to be sure that no legal loopholes can be found
:D
Ahh, good idea.
Nathan,
can you take a look at the disclaimer and make sure that it's bullet proof? I am thinking that part that says "anything else that may occur as a result...", should cover just about anything else not listed that may occur, but your thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
:)
Jonathan
Jonathan,
Just a heads up. Yesterday on Christmas, a neighbor came over for dinner. As a bit of fun he set off two of these "works" firecrackers and as a result, my husband is in jail for PC 12303.2 Possession of a destructive device in a public place because it happened on our property (along side of our neighbor). My husband had nothing to do with this. Even though is about a hundred videos on this (you tube) and many doing this experiment on school grounds, my husband maybe faced with one year in jail. I'll find out more tomorrow morning with his court date. I feel as though we are in the Twilight Zone.
Post a Comment