Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: either and Welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland.
Speaker 1: I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio and how
Speaker 1: the tech are you Today? We are going to listen
Speaker 1: to the second part of my two part series on fireworks,
Speaker 1: or our two part series, I should say. It's a
Speaker 1: different era of tech stuff we're talking about here. And um, yeah,
Speaker 1: we had part one yesterday because it was fourth of July,
Speaker 1: and I just figured we'd run both parts. So sit back, relax,
Speaker 1: and enjoy this second part about how fireworks work. As
Speaker 1: of about the Italian Renaissance, people started adding different metals
Speaker 1: into the gunpowder to make it burn in different colors,
Speaker 1: and I suspect that this was tie into the fact
Speaker 1: that also around the Italian Renaissance, people were starting to
Speaker 1: make brilliantly colored paints of many different kinds, and the
Speaker 1: same the same metal compounds that were being used for
Speaker 1: those paints, I'm guessing is what got parted over into fireworks. Absolutely. Yeah.
Speaker 1: They also found, you know, if you were able to
Speaker 1: get a metallic salt and say burn it, it would
Speaker 1: burn with a particular color of flame, so you would
Speaker 1: get a flame that would be green or blue or
Speaker 1: whatever based upon the metallic salts that were in that mixture.
Speaker 1: And that's when they said, hey, this this firecracker stuff.
Speaker 1: If we were to put this in combination with the
Speaker 1: firecracker stuff, we'd get these different colors of light that
Speaker 1: would go off because of the explosion could ignite a
Speaker 1: secondary charge that would have a mixture of these metallic
Speaker 1: salts in them. So we just mixed together the right way,
Speaker 1: we get the right color. Now, the important thing to
Speaker 1: remember is that these ingredients they don't change the chemical
Speaker 1: reaction of the explosion itself. It's more like adding a
Speaker 1: little flavor. So your basic ingredient is still the same.
Speaker 1: It's that black powder, but it's what you mix with
Speaker 1: it that gives you the bright, pretty colors. Right, And
Speaker 1: to explain what creates those bright pretty colors, we need
Speaker 1: to get down to an atomic level of how photons
Speaker 1: are created, yeah, or not well, given off given off? Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So if you have an atom, one of the things
Speaker 1: that one of the sub atomic particles that make up
Speaker 1: that atom is the electron. Right, you have electrons that
Speaker 1: surround the new trol the nucleus with neutrons and protons,
Speaker 1: or in the case of hydrogen, just proton, and if
Speaker 1: you were to add energy to that atom, you would
Speaker 1: excite the electron. And I don't mean it'd be like, oh,
Speaker 1: I cannot wait until of interest to age of ultron
Speaker 1: comes out. Actually that's kind of I imagine that the
Speaker 1: dance that the electron does is very much like that
Speaker 1: dance that I do. Yeah, the little the little little
Speaker 1: arms are are at shoulder height and and clinched in
Speaker 1: fists if you want to envision it, and then you
Speaker 1: just kind of wiggle a little bit. So these electrons, Yeah,
Speaker 1: they get excite did from their normal energy state, which
Speaker 1: is called the ground state. That's the one that they
Speaker 1: naturally inhabit, and they're just hanging out exactly. So, so
Speaker 1: that excited state will kind of push the electron further
Speaker 1: out athletes. Yeah. So the thing is this is not
Speaker 1: sustainable forever. If you take the energy source away, then
Speaker 1: the electron will gradually come back down to its ground state,
Speaker 1: but it has to give off all that energy it
Speaker 1: accepted in the process, all right, So when it snaps back,
Speaker 1: it gives off energy in the form of a photon, right,
Speaker 1: and depending upon the element, you will get a different
Speaker 1: color of light, a different a different wavelength of photon exactly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the photons light is dependent upon its wavelength and the
Speaker 1: amount of energy that it has equals the color that
Speaker 1: you see. Yeah. So, and and the thing is, once
Speaker 1: you know which elements are generating a certain color, it's
Speaker 1: going to be that way all the time. It's pretty dependable. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So we have a list of color and a list
Speaker 1: of the elements the metallic salts that are commonly used
Speaker 1: to create said colors in your typical fireworks display. So
Speaker 1: we're going to alternate describing these. Do you want me
Speaker 1: to go first? It's the longest list, So all right,
Speaker 1: here we go. All right, So for the color, we're going,
Speaker 1: by the way, in the order of roy G BIV.
Speaker 1: Technically we're doing roy g bit because because indigo actually
Speaker 1: gets turned into indigo and violent get turned into purple. Also,
Speaker 1: I guess it's technically roy g bits because we have
Speaker 1: an S at the end. All right, fair enough, here
Speaker 1: we go, starting off red. To create the color red,
Speaker 1: you would typically add metallic salts such as strontium salts,
Speaker 1: lithium salts, lithium carbonate, or strontium carbonate, which creates a
Speaker 1: very bright red. So the again, depending upon which ones
Speaker 1: you use, you get different hues of whatever color you're
Speaker 1: looking at. Sure, orange you've got calcium salts or calcium chloride.
Speaker 1: Yellow you have sodium salts or sodium chloride. Green can
Speaker 1: be barium compounds plus a chlorine producer, or barium chloride. Yep.
Speaker 1: Blue would be copper compounds plus a chlorine producer you're
Speaker 1: probably noticing some trends here, or copper chloride. Purple can
Speaker 1: be a mixture of blue and red compounds, so so
Speaker 1: like strawntium and copper. And then you have silver, which
Speaker 1: is essentially something like aluminium, titanium or magnesium that's just
Speaker 1: burning and those things burn really super bright. That's what
Speaker 1: gives fireworks there their silvery sparkly look. Yeah, so those
Speaker 1: are your basic ingredients. So how do we end up
Speaker 1: with the starburst patterns? I mean, obviously, if you just
Speaker 1: had an explosive with just these metallic salts mixed willy
Speaker 1: nilly in there and it exploded, it would just be
Speaker 1: a big, massive light in different colors. But we see
Speaker 1: these beautiful starburst patterns that come out. So what is
Speaker 1: it that causes that. Well, it's all in the actual
Speaker 1: manufacture and design, the layout design of right. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's how you have uh situated the various metallic salts
Speaker 1: and you put them well. Well, okay, so so we
Speaker 1: mentioned we mentioned at the end of the last episode
Speaker 1: that the basic let's run down again, the basic way
Speaker 1: that a firework is composed. Sure, okay, So if you
Speaker 1: were looking at a firework from top to bottom, if
Speaker 1: you cut one right in half. Yeah, so the yeah,
Speaker 1: if you cut of right in half, you would see
Speaker 1: that in the center is a burst charge. That's that's
Speaker 1: your your black powder that's designed to push everything outward
Speaker 1: in uh, in whatever formation you happen to have. And
Speaker 1: then surrounding that, you're going to have some kind of
Speaker 1: a clay or or other material that's holding what's called
Speaker 1: in the industry stars. Yeah, this is the metallic salts
Speaker 1: that are placed in And these these stars are small,
Speaker 1: they're like three or four centimeters across, so they look
Speaker 1: like pellets, and the pellets can be put around. There's
Speaker 1: also black powder around those, so it can really project
Speaker 1: them out and also ignite them so that they burn properly.
Speaker 1: Now you've got these layouts that will determine exactly what
Speaker 1: kind of effect you'll have. It's also the shape of
Speaker 1: the projectile shell itself, but really it's the layout of
Speaker 1: those those stars. If you put the stars in a
Speaker 1: really tight circle around this this uh, this burst charge,
Speaker 1: then when the fireworks goes off, you're going to get
Speaker 1: a perfect circle that expands outward as these metallic salts
Speaker 1: ignite and fly outward. And the cool thing is that
Speaker 1: a lot of these stars they have it where there
Speaker 1: it's a three sixty degree thing. But because of the
Speaker 1: way we perceive fireworks, it looks to us more like
Speaker 1: a two dimensional circle that expands out, but it's actually
Speaker 1: going out in all directions. It's a true explosion. Uh.
Speaker 1: If you were somehow able to be in the middle
Speaker 1: of one. For example, if you were I don't know,
Speaker 1: to fly a drone with a video camera on it
Speaker 1: into a fireworks display, which happened this year, then you
Speaker 1: would be able to see that it explodes outward in
Speaker 1: all directions, not just in a two dimensional circle, which
Speaker 1: is pretty cool. Uh. At any rate, you end up
Speaker 1: mixing those metallic salts with an oxidizer or reducing agent,
Speaker 1: which is also a fuel, oxidizers and reducers work together
Speaker 1: to create the Bernie Bernie, and then also a binder
Speaker 1: which holds all the stuff together. Now, the oxidizers and
Speaker 1: the stars aren't usually potassium nitrate like you would find
Speaker 1: a black powder, because those oxidizers don't allow for high
Speaker 1: temperatures that are needed to produce the chemical reactions necessary
Speaker 1: for the different colors. In other words, potassium nitrate doesn't
Speaker 1: burn hot enough to ignite those metallic salts, so we
Speaker 1: usually end up going with something like potassium chlorate, which
Speaker 1: we mentioned in the previous episode, creates these more even
Speaker 1: more spectacular explosions or combustions. Uh just it burns even
Speaker 1: faster than regular black powder does, making it much more dangerous.
Speaker 1: But that's what you need in order to generate these colors.
Speaker 1: Although again also that we mentioned in the last episode,
Speaker 1: people are looking at alternatives because potassium chlorate is not
Speaker 1: the best thing in the world to get in the environment.
Speaker 1: Once it has combusted, you get chloride for one thing,
Speaker 1: not a good stuff, but you do get those more
Speaker 1: intense reactions, which allows the the starbursts to ignite and
Speaker 1: fly outward. We're interrupting this episode because we're about to
Speaker 1: take a break for some messages will be right back.
Speaker 1: So you would typically have lots and lots of these
Speaker 1: stars packed into a single firework and you place the
Speaker 1: meticulously inside the rocket. And by meticulously I mean this
Speaker 1: is done by hand. People hand make these fireworks so
Speaker 1: that the patterns are exact. They will place the stars strategically. Uh,
Speaker 1: this is how you are able to get something like
Speaker 1: a smiley face effect because it's it's it's all based
Speaker 1: on physics. You know that you know exactly how far
Speaker 1: something's gonna fly based upon the amount of black powder
Speaker 1: in there, and it's or orientation within the firework itself.
Speaker 1: So there's nothing special in the sense of there's no
Speaker 1: special tech that makes this heart shape or this smiley face.
Speaker 1: It's all in how those stars are right in there.
Speaker 1: It's very careful chemistry and mixing and physics. Yeah, physics
Speaker 1: does the rest for you, as if you've done your
Speaker 1: job correctly in the design of the physical firework. Physics
Speaker 1: takes care of the rest. It'll just make stuff go
Speaker 1: boom and it'll fly the way it's supposed to fly
Speaker 1: based upon where you put it. And I'm sure machines
Speaker 1: could could even more precisely than humans create these mixtures
Speaker 1: and put them down in But the thing is that
Speaker 1: machines tend to get a little bit warm and sparky
Speaker 1: while they're doing their things, so overall it's a lot.
Speaker 1: I mean, my hand is way less sparky than most
Speaker 1: machines that I know. Yeah, so also get rid of
Speaker 1: that stack electricity before you go in there. But see,
Speaker 1: one thing you could do is you could use computer
Speaker 1: programs to help you figure out what's the ideal layout.
Speaker 1: I'm sure, I'm sure that those algorithms exist. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: they do. Where you can actually you have all because
Speaker 1: the law of physics are pretty consistent. You know, we
Speaker 1: don't generally have our laws turned upside down from one
Speaker 1: day to the next. As we'll talk about in the
Speaker 1: next section. There are some factors that can cause a
Speaker 1: little bit of havoc. Weather, humidity, all that kind of stuff. Pressure,
Speaker 1: I'm sure. So looking at a rocket completely in cross section,
Speaker 1: let's say you're cutting it in half long ways, not
Speaker 1: not horizontally, so vertically, uh, and you're looking at it
Speaker 1: from top to bottom, here's what you would have. You
Speaker 1: would have a one main fuse that would lead down
Speaker 1: from the top of the projectile into the firework. That
Speaker 1: would ignite two separate other fuses. All right, So you've
Speaker 1: got one fuse that's a time delay fuse, and it
Speaker 1: burns more slowly. Then you have a quick burning fuse,
Speaker 1: which obviously burns faster. The quick burning fuse goes along
Speaker 1: the outside of the firework down into its base. That's
Speaker 1: where you have the lift charge. That's the black powder
Speaker 1: that's going to provide the force to project the the
Speaker 1: firework into the sky. Uh. The second the time delay
Speaker 1: fused will continue to burn, and if you've designed the
Speaker 1: firework correctly, again based upon the laws of physics, you
Speaker 1: will have it ignited just the right uh arc right right,
Speaker 1: usually when the firework has reached the peak exactly, and
Speaker 1: so that would light the burst charge that's the one
Speaker 1: that has all the stars centered around it. So you've
Speaker 1: got two charges, the lift charge and the burst charge,
Speaker 1: and the two have to be separated or else you
Speaker 1: just get a mortar that explodes in a bright color
Speaker 1: of light, which we've had happened before that accidents have happened,
Speaker 1: um and then right, and then each of those little
Speaker 1: stars inside the package have their own oxidizers that are
Speaker 1: going to set off at the star exactly. And you
Speaker 1: may even have a multi break firework which would have
Speaker 1: multiple chambers that have burst charges and stars in them,
Speaker 1: so that you get multiple explosions from one projectile. Uh.
Speaker 1: Those would have even separation charges that you can think
Speaker 1: of it kind of like a pocket that goes into
Speaker 1: outer space. You know, when the engines are done, you
Speaker 1: have the little separator charges that explode, separating the engines
Speaker 1: away so that the rest of the vehicle can continue
Speaker 1: going off into space. Same sort of thing with your
Speaker 1: basic firework, except of course you're not shooting it nearly
Speaker 1: as high, but you have little little Yeah, you have
Speaker 1: a little separation charges that will allow the multi breaks
Speaker 1: to happen. Meanwhile, that fuse just continues to slowly go
Speaker 1: through the entire uh firework, lighting each section uh in
Speaker 1: the right order. So it's pretty cool. So let's talk
Speaker 1: about some of these different kinds of shells and what
Speaker 1: exactly they do. Sure, yeah, so these are these are
Speaker 1: terms in the fireworks industry. So the kind of shell
Speaker 1: you have, the design of it, the the physical shape
Speaker 1: of the shell as well as the layout of the
Speaker 1: stars are what determine the how it behaves. So for example,
Speaker 1: I guess we can alternate with these two. You have
Speaker 1: a palm shell, which contains large comets or charges in
Speaker 1: the shape of a solid cylinder. These travel outward, they
Speaker 1: explode and then curved downward like the limbs of a
Speaker 1: palm tree. So those are you know, now you'll be
Speaker 1: able to impress your friends when you watch a fireworks display.
Speaker 1: That's a palm charge. It's a classic palm c really
Speaker 1: well done. You've also got the round shells. Those perhaps
Speaker 1: expectedly explode in a spherical shape, usually of colored stars. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is what I always think of when I think fireworks.
Speaker 1: This is the particular style I think of, just the
Speaker 1: big round globe of glowing stars like red or green,
Speaker 1: flying outward. I actually think of the palm first. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I can, I can see it all depends on I guess,
Speaker 1: your own personal experience. I've seen a lot of Disney
Speaker 1: fireworks and and these round shells are They're very fond
Speaker 1: of them. Yeah, because if you do three of them
Speaker 1: in the right orientation, they look like a mickey head. Yes, exactly.
Speaker 1: So then you have the ring shell. This explodes to
Speaker 1: produce a symmetrical ring of stars. The way this works
Speaker 1: is that again, if you were to cut a ring
Speaker 1: shell in half, you would see just a perfect ring
Speaker 1: of the the pellets, the star pellets around the burst charge,
Speaker 1: and it would just shoot them all out, uh, in
Speaker 1: a circle, you know, in in equal directions. So that's
Speaker 1: all that one works. Uh. Then you've got a willow.
Speaker 1: These contain stars with a high charcoal composition to make
Speaker 1: them really long burning um so that they'll fall out
Speaker 1: in the shape of willow branches and and stay lips,
Speaker 1: stay visible sometimes even until they hit the ground. Yeah,
Speaker 1: these are the ones that you know, you see those
Speaker 1: sparkles and they just the long trail of sparkles as
Speaker 1: they slowly descend. They're very, very impressive. We're making so
Speaker 1: many gestures over here, folks. It's really there's a lot
Speaker 1: of like, uh, spirit fingers going on inside the studio
Speaker 1: right now. Then you have the round dell, which bursts
Speaker 1: into a circle of maroon shells that then explode in sequence.
Speaker 1: Maroon shells is that the color actually no in in
Speaker 1: fireworks language, maroon shells are shells that make a boom noise.
Speaker 1: These are the ones that I really didn't like as
Speaker 1: a kid. The very loud bangs. So by the way, again,
Speaker 1: the way you create that loud bang is you really
Speaker 1: compress that black powder uh in in uh fireworks factories.
Speaker 1: The way I've seen this is that you create the
Speaker 1: parchment shell, the black powders in it. You then have
Speaker 1: that shell wrapped in string that is very tightly wound
Speaker 1: so it compresses it. Then you put wet parchment paper
Speaker 1: on the outside of it, tightly wrapped so that when
Speaker 1: it dries, it compresses it even more. Yeah, pretty impressive.
Speaker 1: Our next type is the chrysanthemum shell, which which person
Speaker 1: into like a spherical pattern of stars that that leave
Speaker 1: a visible trail, so the effect is something like a
Speaker 1: chrysanthemum blossom. Yep. Then you have the pistol, the p
Speaker 1: I S T I L, which is like the chrysanthemum shell,
Speaker 1: but this one has a core. There's a different color
Speaker 1: than the stars that fly out from the middle, So
Speaker 1: the middle has one color, the stars the second color.
Speaker 1: You can have just a maroon shell yep. So if
Speaker 1: you just just a bang, yeah, I hated those. And
Speaker 1: then you had the serpentine, which is my strategy, and halo,
Speaker 1: which never works. But no serpentine fireworks shell burst to
Speaker 1: send small tubes of incendiaries skittering outward at random paths,
Speaker 1: which may culminate an exploding star. So if you ever
Speaker 1: see the ones that have like the crazy Spinney's that
Speaker 1: fly off, yeah, those are serpentines. So those are your
Speaker 1: basic types of fireworks shells. Of course, there are other
Speaker 1: variations on these, or there's some that use this as
Speaker 1: a basis and then they create a different effect. But
Speaker 1: if you were in the fireworks trade, those are the
Speaker 1: kind of terms you would be hearing, and people would
Speaker 1: just call them out as they would see them launchic. Oh,
Speaker 1: that's a round, l that's a serpentine. You wouldn't have
Speaker 1: to say that's a maroon because everyone would be going
Speaker 1: what anyway. So we've talked a little bit about this,
Speaker 1: but actually launching fireworks, especially in terms of displays. So yeah,
Speaker 1: the basic one we've covered the idea that you know
Speaker 1: you have the slow burning fuse and the quick burning fuse.
Speaker 1: The quick burning one lights the black powder. One thing
Speaker 1: we didn't mention is that you do have to have
Speaker 1: a mortar, which is essentially a pipe that has a
Speaker 1: closed off end on one side, and you know In
Speaker 1: the old days, you would essentially light the one main fuse,
Speaker 1: drop the package into the mortar, and then run the
Speaker 1: heck away before everything started going bonky. So once that
Speaker 1: lift charge ignites, it creates a lot of gas, and
Speaker 1: that gas expands and that's what provides the thrust to
Speaker 1: push the package out of the mortar and into the air.
Speaker 1: So if this sounds a lot like our discussions about
Speaker 1: things like cannon and flintlock pistols and things of that nature,
Speaker 1: it's because it is. We're talking about expanding gases. It's
Speaker 1: the same thing that creates the the propulsion for your
Speaker 1: basic firearm. So you've got your mortar and your your
Speaker 1: lift charge, and that's all you need to be able
Speaker 1: to launch it properly. These days, we don't necessarily need
Speaker 1: to have someone physically light a fuse and then dump
Speaker 1: it into a mortar. Than right there's there there are
Speaker 1: computerized fuses that will h I mean not self light
Speaker 1: but no, no. Why Essentially, you've got you set up
Speaker 1: your your mortar system that already has the various packages
Speaker 1: in each mortar as it's supposed to be uh, and
Speaker 1: then you have an electrical charge that can create the
Speaker 1: spark to light the fuse, so that way everything can
Speaker 1: be done from a distance. You can either have it
Speaker 1: where it's manually done, where you push a button and
Speaker 1: that button is what creates the spark, or you can
Speaker 1: have it fully automated, where you've got a full program
Speaker 1: and you say, at this time stamp and when this
Speaker 1: program runs, this particular spark needs to happen, and in
Speaker 1: that case you can launch a firework. So this is
Speaker 1: where you get those big choreograph displays. Right, You've got
Speaker 1: a essentially a program that has a beginning to the end.
Speaker 1: And think of it like a video on YouTube. You
Speaker 1: would you look at the video and you'd see, oh,
Speaker 1: it's seven minutes twelve twelve seconds long. I want to
Speaker 1: see what happens at minute three and and twelve seconds
Speaker 1: and you go straight to that point and you look
Speaker 1: at that frame. Well, in this computer program, you would
Speaker 1: be able to see which switches were essentially being thrown
Speaker 1: all atronically not mechanically necessarily these days, and you could say, oh, alright,
Speaker 1: at that point, orders seventeen three and forty nine all fire.
Speaker 1: There's a roundel in the center, there's a chrysanthemum, and
Speaker 1: there's a pistol and all three go up simultaneously to
Speaker 1: create the effect you're going for. And you know exactly
Speaker 1: what's in which mortar. You know, you program that ends
Speaker 1: you put them there. Yeah, you put them there, and
Speaker 1: you say to the computer program, this is the thing
Speaker 1: that's in this other thing, and you you cut and
Speaker 1: create your fuses. Fuse technology also has a lot to
Speaker 1: do with how all of this is going to go off.
Speaker 1: And fuses are just really basic things if you've never
Speaker 1: created one yourself, that are made of some kind of
Speaker 1: fuel um that's coated or or possibly soaked or infused
Speaker 1: with some kind of oxidizer, and the exact materials and
Speaker 1: ratios of materials that you use are going to give
Speaker 1: you these these different time effects right whether or not
Speaker 1: it will burn at say, you could have the same
Speaker 1: length of fuse and one of them might take fifteen
Speaker 1: seconds to burn all the way through, the other one
Speaker 1: might burn all the way through in three seconds. Again,
Speaker 1: it all depends upon the the stuff you've put into
Speaker 1: that fuse, the oxidizers and any other kind of fuel
Speaker 1: you've imbued the fuse with. So uh, once you know
Speaker 1: the physics and assuming your chemistry is good, you can
Speaker 1: have very consistent results from one firework to the next.
Speaker 1: So that assumes a lot. It means that you have
Speaker 1: to be very consistent and all the ingredients you use.
Speaker 1: You have to be consistent in the mixtures, the proportions
Speaker 1: you're using, as well as consistent in the placement of
Speaker 1: stars and the fuses that you use. But if you are,
Speaker 1: if you're really good about that, then you know how
Speaker 1: far the thing is gonna fly based upon the amount
Speaker 1: of lift charge in it and it's weight, because that's
Speaker 1: the two things that are going to determine how far
Speaker 1: projectile flies is how heavy is it and how much
Speaker 1: thrust are you giving it. Then you would also be
Speaker 1: able to determine when it's going to explode based upon
Speaker 1: the type of fuse that leads to that verset charge.
Speaker 1: So once you oh these things, you can start to
Speaker 1: work backward. Right. So let's say that you have a
Speaker 1: piece of music that you that you particularly want to
Speaker 1: set your fireworks display too. And since I'm a huge
Speaker 1: Disney fan and Disney is famous for this, let's say
Speaker 1: it's when you wish upon a star, and when you
Speaker 1: can hear the words star, clearly you want to have
Speaker 1: a starburst effect, right, you want to have the gorgeous
Speaker 1: starburst effects of the crowd is ooing and eying right
Speaker 1: at the right moment. So what you would do is
Speaker 1: you would take that song and you would look at
Speaker 1: the time stamp for when the word star is mentioned.
Speaker 1: From that time stamp, you start to work backward and
Speaker 1: you say, all right, based upon when this happens in
Speaker 1: the song, when does that burst charge need to ignite?
Speaker 1: And then working backwards from that point, you know you
Speaker 1: know when the burst charge needs to ignite so that
Speaker 1: you get the effect you want. You then say, all right,
Speaker 1: well i want it to be at this particular height
Speaker 1: and I'm firing it from this particular location. So based
Speaker 1: on that, you know the distance that the projectile has
Speaker 1: to go so that it can be at the right
Speaker 1: height and and explode at the right time. That tells
Speaker 1: you how large a lift charge you need to get
Speaker 1: the projectile there, and how quickly that quick burning fuse
Speaker 1: needs to burn in order for it to ignite at
Speaker 1: what time you need to push or push the button
Speaker 1: or have it automatically exactly. So again you just work backwards.
Speaker 1: You know you know when you want the effect to happen,
Speaker 1: So then you work backwards to find out when it
Speaker 1: has to initiate that are that fuse burning for the
Speaker 1: first time. So it actually is is pretty easy in
Speaker 1: that respect, but it does require that you have a
Speaker 1: very good knowledge of how the physics works, so that
Speaker 1: and and it also requires that those fireworks are consistently made.
Speaker 1: You've worked out the chemistry correctly, right, so that way
Speaker 1: when you use all right, we're going to use firework
Speaker 1: number seven, this this particular type of firework every single time,
Speaker 1: because I mean, like Walt Disney, the Disney Parks, they
Speaker 1: do these these fireworks displays nearly every night, particularly in
Speaker 1: the summer, right, So then that means it has to
Speaker 1: be exactly right each time. So the fireworks have to
Speaker 1: be consistent and they have to be ignited at the
Speaker 1: the same time the consistent time throughout each of these displays.
Speaker 1: But it's really pretty cool. Um. Also, you might wonder
Speaker 1: what exactly is making that boom noise. Yeah, Well we've
Speaker 1: been talking a little bit about expanding gases. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: that's that's basically it. The the the expansion of this
Speaker 1: stuff in the firework displaces a pretty large quantity of
Speaker 1: air that air has to go somewhere, so it ripples
Speaker 1: outward really fast, right, essentially a shock wave. So that's
Speaker 1: what makes the boom. Yeah. So of course, the more
Speaker 1: black powder you can pack into a small space, the
Speaker 1: bigger the boom. Again, it has to be compact because
Speaker 1: if it's just loose, then it just it just burns.
Speaker 1: It burns really fast. In fact, there are a lot
Speaker 1: of people who get really picky about the terms uh,
Speaker 1: igniting versus exploding, because they say, well, technically, gunpowder just
Speaker 1: burns really, really really fast. It's not truly explosive. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but if you were to put it in a very
Speaker 1: compact area, then you get that explosion because of the
Speaker 1: rapid combustion. We'll be back with more about fireworks in
Speaker 1: just a moment. So, uh, we've really kind of covered
Speaker 1: all the basics, um about you know, how these things work, uh,
Speaker 1: the way that you would coordinate stuff. But we've still
Speaker 1: got some fun, little goofy trivial facts that I wanted
Speaker 1: to cover. And so back in I mentioned this a
Speaker 1: little bit. Disneyland introduced its first fireworks show. Uh. It
Speaker 1: was called Fantasy in the Sky, and Walt Disney came
Speaker 1: up with this idea or actually asked the imagineers to
Speaker 1: come up with an idea of how do you keep
Speaker 1: people in the park after it gets dark? And I
Speaker 1: guess this is why to this day Disney uses fireworks
Speaker 1: displays almost nightly. Yeah. Well, it turned out to be
Speaker 1: one of those things that really really worked well. People
Speaker 1: would stay in the park longer, which ultimately means they'd
Speaker 1: be willing to spend more money. I mean you, the
Speaker 1: longer you keep someone there, the more likely they're gonna
Speaker 1: walk out with one of those Mickey lemonades and Mickey dolls.
Speaker 1: They the more, the more Turos they'll eat. Disney Turos
Speaker 1: are the best. You know, their ice cream is pretty
Speaker 1: awesome too. Okay, I love Disney. But the anyway, the
Speaker 1: launch site for the fireworks was backstage, and each firework
Speaker 1: at that time had to be lit manually. There's actually
Speaker 1: some video that you can watch of the various people
Speaker 1: who had to run back and forth and light the
Speaker 1: fireworks in the right sequence. Um. Now, these early fireworks
Speaker 1: weren't choreographed the way the modern ones were. It wasn't
Speaker 1: like you had park wide music and the fireworks went
Speaker 1: off of the right but they were like really impressive displays. Uh.
Speaker 1: The displays, by the way, in Disney parks all depend
Speaker 1: upon where you which park you're in, because some of
Speaker 1: the places like Disneyland, Paris and UH and Tokyo Disneyland
Speaker 1: and Tokyo disne See have specific limitations on how high
Speaker 1: works can go. So the ones that you'll see in
Speaker 1: say Florida and California are different than the ones you
Speaker 1: would see in these other parks because of those locals.
Speaker 1: And since the days of Fantasy in the Sky, they've
Speaker 1: they've kind of upgraded, Like I said, they've got the
Speaker 1: fully choreographed ones. Yeah, yeah, with quite a few shells. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The Disney World's Wishes display has five hundred fifty seven
Speaker 1: firing queues. They have more shells than that, but just
Speaker 1: five fifty seven separate cueues in that one display, So
Speaker 1: five fifty seven different times there are multiple shells going
Speaker 1: up into the sky. That's incredibly complex. I think it's
Speaker 1: like seventeen minutes long something like that. So it's a
Speaker 1: really long display, so really impressive. I mean obviously if
Speaker 1: it were like three minutes long and there's five or
Speaker 1: fifty seven firing cues, you would just be blind and
Speaker 1: deaf by the end of it. Yeah, that sounds a
Speaker 1: little bit whelming, right, Yes. Um uh. They've also engineered
Speaker 1: their their system to use compressed air for launches rather
Speaker 1: than that initial blast. We've been talking about an initial
Speaker 1: blast forcing something out out of the firing too. But yeah,
Speaker 1: but they're using compressed air, so it probably reduces their
Speaker 1: cost a lot. You only need that that single explosion,
Speaker 1: and it reduces the amount of smoke that's created. Yes,
Speaker 1: so they don't have to because of obviously those early
Speaker 1: displays emit that once the display was over, you had
Speaker 1: this kind of cloud of smoke hanging over the Magic Kingdom. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so this way they are able to avoid that. Also,
Speaker 1: I mean, you're just using giant air cannons. That's how
Speaker 1: cool is that? Uh. In the United States, at least,
Speaker 1: fireworks are technically classified as two different types of explosives
Speaker 1: at the same time because of the different effects. So
Speaker 1: the fact that they have the one blast for propulsion
Speaker 1: and the other blast that's truly the explosion. You have
Speaker 1: a low level and like an intermediate level of explosive
Speaker 1: classification just for fireworks. Like it's two and one of
Speaker 1: the recording of this podcast. The largest fireworks display on
Speaker 1: record happened on December in Dubai, during which they exploded
Speaker 1: four hundred and seventy nine thousand, six hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: one fireworks. It's stretched across about sixty miles of seafront.
Speaker 1: That is an enormous fireworks display. Yeah, the the air
Speaker 1: would look as if it were on fire. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: we kind of have to because I don't think any
Speaker 1: wants enough forward to do that. Uh no, no, and
Speaker 1: um and and again we do. We do want to
Speaker 1: impress upon you that that these are I mean beautiful
Speaker 1: and mirac well not miraculous, they're technological. These are beautiful,
Speaker 1: technological feats of engineering and physics and chemistry all at
Speaker 1: the same time that will totally blow your fingers off.
Speaker 1: It will super blow your fingers off, y'all. Don't play
Speaker 1: with them, no, yeah, and I know there are a
Speaker 1: lot of people who do like their little backyard fireworks
Speaker 1: display or four fourth of July here in the US,
Speaker 1: or or the New Year's Eve or what. Just just
Speaker 1: you know, stay sober, folks. Have a spotter, yeah, have
Speaker 1: have you know your your fire handling stuff like a
Speaker 1: fire extinguisher is always a good idea. Just practice safety
Speaker 1: and be be alert, you know, enjoy yourself, but don't
Speaker 1: make them at home, please. These are these are explosives,
Speaker 1: and explosives are inherently dangerous, so just be careful. Even
Speaker 1: sparklers are using black powder, right, that's that's one of
Speaker 1: the mixers, and they have like the little mel f
Speaker 1: likes like aluminum or whatever in them so that they
Speaker 1: create those bright silver sparks. So these are things that
Speaker 1: will burn. They'll burn hot, they will burn you if
Speaker 1: you're not careful, So just show caution. Enjoy yourselves though,
Speaker 1: because these displays can be really really impressive. Um, I
Speaker 1: like to let other people handle it for me because,
Speaker 1: knowing how excellent prone I am, I realized that it
Speaker 1: would be a terrible idea to put me in charge
Speaker 1: of any kind of fireworks display. Given the opportunity, I
Speaker 1: will burn myself every time. I have to remind myself
Speaker 1: a roximately daily that hot things are hot, right exactly right?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that thing that glowing red, Now, I remember
Speaker 1: why it's glowing red. It's because of that those excited electrons.
Speaker 1: And that's it. That's our two part episode series on fireworks.
Speaker 1: I keep thinking I need to do another episode about this,
Speaker 1: but talk about, uh, some of the more recent fireworks
Speaker 1: extravaganza US, because there's some pretty phenomenal ones out there,
Speaker 1: including ones that incorporate everything from lasers to drones and
Speaker 1: projection mapping and all that kind of stuff. There's some
Speaker 1: really cool ones. Uh, And yeah, maybe I'll revisit this
Speaker 1: for a future episode. But if you have suggestions for episodes,
Speaker 1: then I would love to hear them. There are a
Speaker 1: couple different ways you can get in touch. One is
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Speaker 1: you would like. Or you can go over on Twitter
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Speaker 1: you again really soon. Y. Tech Stuff is an I
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