Fireworks are a colorful display of lights that entrance people of all ages; from young to old. They seem to flash against the night sky as if by magic; appearing before your very eyes, with a loud boom and a glimmer of color. But woe to the child who believes in the magic behind fireworks; that magic is chemistry.
To make that beautiful display happen you need a few things. The first is an oxidizer. Oxidizers give off the oxygen gas needed to burn the other agents in the fireworks. They are usually nitrates, chlorates, or perchlorates. The next thing needed is the fuel. The fuel undergoes a chemical reaction with the oxidizer to produce heat. The most common fuels used are sulfur, aluminum powder, magnesium powder, and charcoal. Different variants of these are used to produce the desired amount of heat and the desired burning rate for different types of fireworks. The last ingredient, and probably the most important to the spectators of these light shows, is the color. The colors are produced by burning chemicals. Different chemicals give off a different color, or wavelength, of light when burned. For example: to produce red, strontium or lithium salts and carbonates are burned, to get orange; calcium salts or chlorides. For yellow, sodium salts or chlorides. Finally, for things like purple a mixture of strontium and copper compounds is needed.
All of these agents are arranged into a cardboard shell that, when ignited, creates the beautiful mesmerizing display that we all know.
Submitted by Briahna Lawson
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