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Speaker 1: Hey, Daniel, I have an explosive question for you. Oh

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Speaker 1: are you gonna ask me about how to blow things up?

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Speaker 1: Isn't that what you do every day anyways at the

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Speaker 1: particle Collider. I mean, like on a more everyday basis.

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Speaker 1: How do you feel about summer fireworks? M I used

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Speaker 1: to love fireworks as a kid. I used to love him.

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Speaker 1: You don't like him anymore. I guess I just used

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Speaker 1: to have a more sparkling personality. Well, you can be

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Speaker 1: a real fire cracker, trust me. I'm hoping one day

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Speaker 1: that all blows over. Very bright and ploughing personality. Also,

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Speaker 1: you seem to make a lot of noise. So far,

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Speaker 1: I've never been fired from work for setting off fireworks.

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Speaker 1: I am hor I'm a cartoonist and the creator of

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Speaker 1: PhD comics. Hi. I'm Daniel. I'm a particle physicist and

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Speaker 1: a professor at U C Irvine, and I really do

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Speaker 1: love blowing things up. Oh yeah, do you do that

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Speaker 1: as a hobby, not just in your work. Yeah, I'm

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Speaker 1: pitching a new reality show called Will It Explode? Interesting?

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Speaker 1: I guess if you don't like your fingers or hands,

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Speaker 1: that sounds like a great show to join. I think

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Speaker 1: everybody would want to tune in and see how much

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Speaker 1: T and T does it take to blow up this

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Speaker 1: or that, a banana, a watermelon, a coconut. You remind

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Speaker 1: me of my cousin when we were a little I

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Speaker 1: could love to blow things up with and had that

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Speaker 1: work out for your cousin. All right, he's still alive,

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Speaker 1: still has all his fingers, he managed to survive success,

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Speaker 1: And I hope his job lets him blow things up

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Speaker 1: on a regular basis like mine actually fixes planes now,

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Speaker 1: so I hope, I hope it doesn't blow things up.

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Speaker 1: His job is the opposite now of his childhood passion.

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Speaker 1: That's keep things are blowing up, please because but anyways,

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Speaker 1: Welcome to our podcast, Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe,

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Speaker 1: a production of our Heart Radio. We're the only thing

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Speaker 1: we want to blow up is your mind. As we

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Speaker 1: delve into the secrets of the universe and try to

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Speaker 1: understand how it all works. We take apart the very

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Speaker 1: fabric of space and time and reality and seek to

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Speaker 1: understand it at the smallest level. How does the universe

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Speaker 1: really work? What are its most fundamental bits, and how

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Speaker 1: do those weave themselves together to make this incredible exciting

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Speaker 1: and explosive universe that we enjoy every summer. Yeah, it

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Speaker 1: is an exploding universe. As we know, dark energy is

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Speaker 1: making the universe accelerated and expand faster and faster each day. Literally,

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Speaker 1: it is sort of exploding, and it's also full of sparkly,

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Speaker 1: amazing and colorful things for us to wonder about. That's right,

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Speaker 1: although thinking about the Big Bang and the expansion of

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Speaker 1: the universe as an explosion does tend to lead people

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Speaker 1: to thinking about things the wrong way. A lot of

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Speaker 1: people think about the Big Bang is like this tiny

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Speaker 1: dot of matter which then blew up into space which

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Speaker 1: already existed. So these days our vision of the early

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Speaker 1: universe isn't as much like a firecracker as it is

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Speaker 1: like a big rubber sheet getting stretched everywhere. Then maybe

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Speaker 1: you shouldn't have called it the Big Bang. I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's in the name Dead Hill. The Big Bang sounds

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Speaker 1: like an explosion. It does indeed sound like an explosion,

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Speaker 1: and so we'll add to the list of horribly named

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Speaker 1: astronomical concepts. I mean, you just misnamed the entire universe.

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Speaker 1: I mean, just a small error there. We should have

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Speaker 1: called it the Big Stretch. But it is interesting. Do

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Speaker 1: you see your job as blowing things up? You said

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Speaker 1: earlier you like blowing things up, and you're a particle physicist,

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Speaker 1: which means you collide things, because that is that also

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Speaker 1: the same thing as blowing things up. Yeah, Well, the

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Speaker 1: reason we collide things is to blow them up. Like

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Speaker 1: you want to know what's inside a proton, you can't

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Speaker 1: like put it on the table and tease it apart

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Speaker 1: with pliers. What you gotta do is smash two of

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Speaker 1: them together, blow them up, and see what comes out

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Speaker 1: from that explosion. So every collision inside the large Hadron

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Speaker 1: collider is like mini explosion, and we do millions of

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Speaker 1: them per second. Also, it's more like a smashing. I

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Speaker 1: don't know if it's exploding. Really, well, what happens if

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Speaker 1: you smash two watermelons together? They explode? Don't they know?

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Speaker 1: They're just mash If you put a grenade inside of

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Speaker 1: a watermelon, that's an explosion. Well, if I could put

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Speaker 1: a grenade inside a proton, I would totally do it.

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Speaker 1: But what would the grenade be made out of? Daniel

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Speaker 1: grenade on obviously delicious dessert explosions. But I'm also a

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Speaker 1: big fan of aerial explosions, though maybe more so as

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Speaker 1: a kid. Yeah, you mentioned that before, So you don't

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Speaker 1: like fireworks anymore. Like you go to display and what

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Speaker 1: either you close your ears or you close your eyes.

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Speaker 1: I used to be really amazed by them. I thought

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Speaker 1: they were fantastic when I was a kid, And now

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Speaker 1: I don't know if I've just gotten old and grumpy,

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Speaker 1: but they're just sort of less impressive. They're beautiful now,

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Speaker 1: and they're they're getting more complicated now, right Like now

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Speaker 1: they can you know, like sync them up with music

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Speaker 1: and do all kinds of things like multiple explosions that

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Speaker 1: make different formations up there in the sky. And as

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Speaker 1: we come up on July four, it reminds me that

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Speaker 1: the best fireworks display I ever saw for July four

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Speaker 1: for American Independence Day was actually in Switzerland. Oh yeah,

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Speaker 1: they make everything better out there, more precise. There's a

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Speaker 1: huge American population in Switzerland, and so in Geneva they

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Speaker 1: have an incredible July fourth fireworks display. In Geneva. It's

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Speaker 1: like outside the US, but they go all out and

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Speaker 1: have a life orchestra which plays music and coordination with

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Speaker 1: the fireworks. It really was pretty impressive. So you do

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Speaker 1: like fireworks then, Yeah, occasionally I've been known to enjoy

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Speaker 1: them occasionally. I mean it, who doesn't like fireworks? Many dogs,

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Speaker 1: dogs and physicists, dogs and jaded physicists. Well, when you

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Speaker 1: blow things up for a living, you know you expect

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Speaker 1: the higher standard. I guess right, right, when you smash

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Speaker 1: things for a living, you mean you know you said

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Speaker 1: you got the name for the origin of the universe wrong.

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Speaker 1: Maybe you should be a little more careful. Yeah, point taken.

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Speaker 1: But anyways, fireworks are pretty amazing and incredible and part

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Speaker 1: of our tradition and part of how the world celebrates

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Speaker 1: big events like independence and New Year's But it's kind

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Speaker 1: of interesting to think about how that actually works. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's an example of how we have put our knowledge

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Speaker 1: of how the universe works to work for us. We

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Speaker 1: manipulate these things and take advantage of them to create

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Speaker 1: these incredible bright displays. But to do so you have

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Speaker 1: to know some physics and some chemistry. Yeah. So today

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Speaker 1: on the program, we're we tackling the question how the

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Speaker 1: fireworks work, or I guess more technically, how the fireworks

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Speaker 1: fire and work? And can you set off fireworks at

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Speaker 1: work without getting fired? It is a bit of an oxymoron.

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Speaker 1: It is, isn't it? In one word, you have the firing.

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Speaker 1: You can fire someone and they can also work exactly fireworks.

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Speaker 1: It's like we works, but we don't work. Yeah, firecrashed. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's pretty interesting to think about how far works work.

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Speaker 1: But I think you sort of said earlier that it's

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Speaker 1: the result of our knowledge at the universe, But really,

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Speaker 1: sort of fireworks weren't you know? It didn't come from

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Speaker 1: us understanding anything about the universe, right, I think it

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Speaker 1: was mostly just people playing around with and maybe figuring

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Speaker 1: out that some things blew up. You're absolutely right that

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Speaker 1: fireworks have been with us for a lot longer than

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Speaker 1: our understanding of the chemistry and the physics of them,

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Speaker 1: that's for sure. In fact, I think they're invented in China,

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Speaker 1: like more than a thousand years ago. So firework has

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Speaker 1: been a part of a human existence for a very

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Speaker 1: very long time, longer than we've had modern chemistry, that's

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Speaker 1: for sure. How they were invented, do you think someone

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Speaker 1: would just falling around with things and then that they

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Speaker 1: blew up on them, and then the person next to

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Speaker 1: them was like, oh, that's interesting. I love thinking about

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Speaker 1: how people stumbled into understanding of how things work. You

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Speaker 1: think about like think about like the metallurgy of swords.

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Speaker 1: People have really refined techniques for exactly how to make

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Speaker 1: very hard steal well before we had any understanding of

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Speaker 1: the chemistry of it. And I think that must have

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Speaker 1: just been accidentally disc covered people making mistakes and then discovering,

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Speaker 1: oh wow, look this is pretty awesome. So yeah, I

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Speaker 1: think gunpowder probably discovered accidentally. Interesting what we'll get into

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Speaker 1: what how it works and how it was discovered. But

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Speaker 1: as you said, the history of it is that it

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Speaker 1: was invented in China about a thousand years ago. People

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Speaker 1: are not sure. I guess there are no records of it.

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Speaker 1: There are some records of it, and you can look

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Speaker 1: at like Chinese historical drawings and visitors who went to

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Speaker 1: China of course to see evidence of it for more

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Speaker 1: than a thousand years. It's pretty cool. Do you think

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Speaker 1: they were they invented as a like a celebration display

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Speaker 1: or more for warfare. They were initially invented for celebration,

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Speaker 1: they think, and then later applied for war. Like everything now,

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Speaker 1: it's usually the other way around these days, right, the

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Speaker 1: Internet was started for the military darpened it. Yeah, it

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Speaker 1: was originally darpen it and then it became you know,

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Speaker 1: cat videos and podcasts. I see, so you're saying fireworks,

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Speaker 1: eventually we'll just turn into cat videos. That would be

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Speaker 1: super impressive. If they can do a cat video with explosives,

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Speaker 1: engineers could get to it. That is the goal. The

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Speaker 1: way every life form eventually evolves into a crab, every

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Speaker 1: form of weapon eventually evolves into a cap video. Well,

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Speaker 1: and then eventually it came to Europe, but not until

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Speaker 1: much later. That's right, in the fourteenth century is when

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Speaker 1: Europe started to use fireworks and developed the same sort

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Speaker 1: of technology, and then somehow it made it to American

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Speaker 1: and became part of July fourth our celebrations. Yeah, but

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Speaker 1: blowing things up have been part of how people celebrate

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Speaker 1: things for a long long time. Watermelons, fireworks, hopefully not cats,

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Speaker 1: the beginning of the universe with a big bang. Well,

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Speaker 1: it's interesting because it's something that's in our everyday lives,

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Speaker 1: almost or at least once or twice a year. But

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Speaker 1: I mean, not a lot of people know how it works.

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Speaker 1: And so as usual, we were wondering what would happen

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Speaker 1: if you ask people on the street or on the

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Speaker 1: internet how fire works work. So thanks very much to

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Speaker 1: everybody out there who answers random questions about the Big Bang,

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Speaker 1: the origin of the universe, and how fireworks work without

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Speaker 1: any chance to repair. We really love you participating. And

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Speaker 1: if you're out there and you've never joined in leaves,

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Speaker 1: don't be shy right to us. Two questions at Daniel

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Speaker 1: and Jorge dot com. You want to hear from you,

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Speaker 1: So think about it for a second. How do you

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Speaker 1: think fireworks work? Here's but to say, there's some small

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Speaker 1: amount of gunpowder in a tube that two explodes, creating

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Speaker 1: a big old pressure wave in a tiny, little enclosed area.

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Speaker 1: So that exerts a force on something that's gonna get

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Speaker 1: shot into the air or or I guess whichever way

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Speaker 1: you point it at a friend or a building or

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Speaker 1: a car. And if it's one of those big fireworks,

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Speaker 1: it probably has a second charge in it. You can

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Speaker 1: put a bunch of different metals in there that are

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Speaker 1: gonna burn at different colors, and that would be what

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Speaker 1: makes all the pretty colors in the sky after that

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Speaker 1: second charge goes off. It's my understanding that you have

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Speaker 1: a shell that is made up of black powder or

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Speaker 1: gunpowder or something explosive, surrounded by a little things, little

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Speaker 1: balls of something that is dipped in as salt, like

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Speaker 1: a strontium or um, you know, some sort of metal

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Speaker 1: that when it heats up, it glows in a specific color.

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Speaker 1: Fireworks show differently because I think they're chemicals within each

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Speaker 1: display that ones exploded will reflect light differently, and that's

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Speaker 1: what produces all of the beautiful colors. Fireworks are like

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Speaker 1: an amazing confluence of chemistry and physics. There's all of

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Speaker 1: this energy that you have stored in the in the

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Speaker 1: propellant and the explosive that you're using, and then once

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Speaker 1: you get it up there, you're using different chemicals to

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Speaker 1: create all the wild colors and effects. It's early rockets

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Speaker 1: and payloads of joy. Oh, I'm so excited if you

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Speaker 1: are talking about fireworks. I love them, and yet I

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Speaker 1: am not sure how they work. There's something explosive and

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Speaker 1: different elements create different colors, I think, though I have

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Speaker 1: no idea how they make those really cool ones with

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Speaker 1: the different sparkles and sounds that sound like they're crackling.

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Speaker 1: I love those. I think fireworks work by firing stuff

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Speaker 1: out in the back of them. Um due to one

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Speaker 1: of the two lads, which I can't remember. That means

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Speaker 1: that due to the oppositey action, the firework will go

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Speaker 1: up and then I guess some dynamite explodes. It makes

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Speaker 1: it nice color in shape. Well. I always imagine fireworks

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Speaker 1: as like a tiny, little colorful controlled bomb that exploded

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Speaker 1: only once you reach the sky. But maybe it works differently.

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Speaker 1: Fireworks work by oxidizing flammables with a specific chemical that

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Speaker 1: emits light at a certain frequency, creating the different colors

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Speaker 1: we see. All right, some pretty technical sounding answers. I

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Speaker 1: like this one that said the confluence of chemistry and physics.

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Speaker 1: That sounds almost poetic. Little do they know chemists and

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Speaker 1: physicist never confluenced exactly. I was like, that's so naive, man,

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Speaker 1: They're like all the way it went together. They're on

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Speaker 1: the other side of campus, man, Like they do totally

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Speaker 1: different physics from us. Chemistry might as well be sociology

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Speaker 1: from our perspective. Is there a stereotype of like a

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Speaker 1: chemist and physicist? Like one of them were are sandals?

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Speaker 1: The other ones? Where where's socks and slippers? I don't know.

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Speaker 1: Eye protection chemistry always wearing eye protection when I see

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Speaker 1: them around the building. I see interesting the chemistry, you see.

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Speaker 1: I have these huge labs of like thirty grad students

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Speaker 1: pumping a different synthesis of this and that and the

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Speaker 1: other thing. It's really amazing and impressive. No, I don't

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Speaker 1: understand most of it. You sound a little jealous there. Well,

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Speaker 1: you see I chemistry. Don't you have like thirty grads

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Speaker 1: fouds yourself. I only have eight grad students right now,

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Speaker 1: thank you. But the u CE chemistry department is top notch.

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Speaker 1: Somebody who graduated from here won the Nobel Prize in

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Speaker 1: chemistry last year. I think always an opportunity to plug

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Speaker 1: u C. I. But yeah, it's pretty interesting. Everyone seems

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Speaker 1: to have an idea that it's about exploding things, which

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Speaker 1: sort of makes sense, and it may be a little obvious.

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Speaker 1: There's an explosion involved in gunpowder. Yeah, but fireworks are

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Speaker 1: much more than just an explosion. Right. If you've been

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Speaker 1: to a recent fire work display, you've seen that they

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Speaker 1: can do incredible stuff. They're sparkly, they're shimmery, they have

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Speaker 1: different colors, they can make smiley faces. I've seen butterflies,

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Speaker 1: I've seen palm trees. It's really amazing and what they

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Speaker 1: can do up there in the sky. Yeah, Well for today,

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Speaker 1: let's break it down maybe a little bit further, right,

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Speaker 1: because when we think about fireworks and you know, celebrations

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Speaker 1: like New Year's or July fourth, there's really sort of

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Speaker 1: three things that people think about. Right. There's the firecrackers,

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Speaker 1: the kind of just explode and make noise that they

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Speaker 1: usually the kind of people throughout in the middle of

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Speaker 1: the street. There are sparklers, which are the you know

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Speaker 1: sticks that you hold and they had a lot of sparkles.

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Speaker 1: And then there's a big fireworks displays that go up

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Speaker 1: in the sky and give us all these amazing colors. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and those things are actually all connected. So that's a

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Speaker 1: great order to tackle them in. All right, Well we'll

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Speaker 1: start with the firecrackers, Daniel, How what is the what

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Speaker 1: are the basics of a fire cracker? Firecracker is really

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Speaker 1: pretty simple stuff. It's essentially just gunpowder in a little

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Speaker 1: tube with a fuse, so it's just like a mini bomb, right,

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Speaker 1: and all it does is rapidly burn the gunpowder, the

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Speaker 1: black powder, and explode and give you a loud noise

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Speaker 1: and a little bit of smoke. M M. But I

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Speaker 1: guess the question is what is gunpowder? Yeah, I've wondered

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Speaker 1: this for a long time. Actually gunpowder is this weird

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Speaker 1: mixture of stuff. So it's got some charcoal in it,

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Speaker 1: like of it is sulfur, and then seventy of it

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Speaker 1: is this stuff called saltpeter, which I always thought was

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Speaker 1: really weird, like who is Peter and why is he

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Speaker 1: so salty? But it's basically just like a funny historical

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Speaker 1: name for a chemical potassium nitrate. Interesting, maybe salt Peter

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Speaker 1: is the cousin of Sweet John. I think they're both

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Speaker 1: blues singers. Sounds like, you know, Mississippi Saltpeter or something. Alright,

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Speaker 1: So to make gunpowder, you just need charcoal, sulfur and

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Speaker 1: potassium nitrate. Now what what's potassium nitrate? It's like p

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Speaker 1: K can end something. Yeah, So the chemical formula is

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Speaker 1: k N O three. So got potassium, it's got nitrogen,

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Speaker 1: it's got oxygen, and it occurs in nature as a

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Speaker 1: mineral and it's a useful source of nitrogen and it's

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Speaker 1: used in fertilizers and also for like obviously rocket propellants

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Speaker 1: and fireworks, and they also put some of it in

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Speaker 1: process meats. Wait what, Oh, that's right, like a curing agent.

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Speaker 1: And like the reason that like red hot dogs are

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Speaker 1: red is because the potassium nitrate. Well, does that mean

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Speaker 1: hot dogs are flammable and they'll explode? I can light

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Speaker 1: them up? Is that why they're called hot dogs? I

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Speaker 1: don't know. But the first thing I would do is

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Speaker 1: take two hot dogs and accelerate them together. See if

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Speaker 1: that can generate a nice hot dog smash. Yeah, that

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Speaker 1: sounds like a great use of a billion dollar facility

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Speaker 1: in Geneva. Maybe for July July four party smash hot

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Speaker 1: dogs and so and sell them to little kids. Okay,

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Speaker 1: so that's gunpowder, charcoal, sulfur and potassium nitrate. Now why

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Speaker 1: does that light up? Why does that explode? Mm? And

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Speaker 1: so what's happening anytime you have an explosion is just

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Speaker 1: a rapid release of energy and like one shell of

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Speaker 1: exploding material and sets off the next one. It's sort

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Speaker 1: of just like a fire in the sense of like

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Speaker 1: the way one piece of wood ignites the next piece,

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Speaker 1: but here it happens very very rapidly, So you have

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Speaker 1: a rapid emission of energy, usually faster than the speed

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Speaker 1: of sound. That's what an explosive is. It's usually supersonic.

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Speaker 1: So that's the basics of an explosion. The details depend

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Speaker 1: on exactly what you have in there, how rapidly it oxidizes,

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Speaker 1: how rapidly it releases that energy. Wait, so maybe it

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Speaker 1: take us through that process then, like what's what's going on?

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Speaker 1: What is oxidizing? Name what do you need like a

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Speaker 1: flame to get it started? Right? So fundamental process that's

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Speaker 1: happening here chemically is something called combustion, right, which technically

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Speaker 1: is just like high temperature exothermic, which means it's releasing energy.

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Speaker 1: So you're doing some chemical change to what's going on inside.

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Speaker 1: You're changing the molecules and their bonds in a way

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Speaker 1: that releases some stored energy, the same way like when

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Speaker 1: you burn gasoline, right, it releases energy that used to

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Speaker 1: be stored inside the fuel. So here it's an exothermic

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Speaker 1: reaction is called a redox reaction because it reacts with

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Speaker 1: some oxidant. Often that's atmospheric oxygen. Like fire needs oxygen, right,

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Speaker 1: it's part of the chemical process to release the energy

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Speaker 1: that's bound inside the wood. Here, you also need some

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Speaker 1: source of oxygen, but there's not enough oxygen in the

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Speaker 1: atmosphere to get this reaction going and to have it

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Speaker 1: happen so fast. You wanted to start in the center

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Speaker 1: and then explode outwards. And you know they can't access

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Speaker 1: enough oxygen to just take that from the air, so

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Speaker 1: you have to provide a source of oxygen to make

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Speaker 1: this whole explosion happen. But I guess you know, like

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Speaker 1: what's the actual reaction, Like why do you need potassium, nitrogen, charcoal, carbon,

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Speaker 1: and sulfur? Like what's going on? Is something transforming into

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Speaker 1: something else or something breaking apart? What do you need

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Speaker 1: those three ingredients? You start with potassium, nitrate and carbon

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Speaker 1: and sulfur, and then you get out the same bits

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Speaker 1: but arrange it in a different pattern, So you get

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Speaker 1: carbon dioxide, you get atmospheric nitrogen, which is into and

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Speaker 1: then you get put passium sulfide. So you end up

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Speaker 1: with the same bits but just rearranged in different molecules

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Speaker 1: in a way that takes less energy. So you've released

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Speaker 1: some of the energy. WHOA, that's a pretty that sounds

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Speaker 1: like a pretty complicated reaction. They're like you put in

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Speaker 1: three things and then three other things come out, but

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Speaker 1: they're totally different. The fire somehow triggers that. Yeah, it's

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Speaker 1: actually a complicated multi stage reaction. Doesn't all happen at once,

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Speaker 1: and it's something people are still sort of studying and

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Speaker 1: trying to optimize, and they've come up recently with more

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Speaker 1: fancy versions of gunpowder or like don't release any smoke.

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Speaker 1: So it's a complicated multi stage reaction. Well, what you

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Speaker 1: mean multistage, Like the first the potassium nitrate reacts with this,

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Speaker 1: and then something else, then the charcoal comes in or

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Speaker 1: what exactly, it's multi steps. You don't have all three

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Speaker 1: things happening at the same time. First you have the

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Speaker 1: potassium nitrate, which breaks down and releases the oxygen, and

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Speaker 1: then that oxygen is crucial for the next stages of

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Speaker 1: the reaction. But I guess you need something to start

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Speaker 1: it right, Like you need that spark. And so when

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Speaker 1: you light up a match, you're burning the stuff in

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Speaker 1: the match, which is creating temperature I guess heat, right,

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Speaker 1: then high kinetic energy things that are moving really fast,

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Speaker 1: and then when you put it close to the gunpowder,

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Speaker 1: that's amount triggers the reaction. Well, these things are in

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Speaker 1: a stable state as is, right, Gunpowder just sitting on

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Speaker 1: the table doesn't give off the energy that's stored in

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Speaker 1: it the same way gasoline doesn't or wood doesn't. But

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Speaker 1: if you can trigger this reaction, if you can get

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Speaker 1: it hot enough to trigger this reaction, you will release

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Speaker 1: some of its internal energy. So it's sort of like

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Speaker 1: a ball trapped on a shelf. You gotta give it

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Speaker 1: a little push so it'll fall off and release all

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Speaker 1: of that potential energy. And so this is all trapped

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Speaker 1: stored inside these chemicals. If you provide some heat to

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Speaker 1: kick it off, then it will release a lot of

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Speaker 1: that internal stored energy, and that release will then trigger

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Speaker 1: more release from the adjacent molecules, so it builds on itself.

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Speaker 1: It's a chain reaction that way, right, And I imagine

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Speaker 1: it's also you need like a certain amount of heat, right,

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Speaker 1: Like I'm sure if it's sitting there out there in

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Speaker 1: the open, there are air molecules hitting it, and some

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Speaker 1: of them are partly hitting it be fast, and it

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Speaker 1: is maybe causing some reactions, but maybe not enough to

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Speaker 1: really get that snowball of rolling exactly, Although you can

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Speaker 1: have that happen naturally from like lightning strikes. Fires can

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Speaker 1: start in the woods from lightning strikes. But you're right,

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Speaker 1: air molecules don't trigger this because they don't deposit enough

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Speaker 1: energy to get over that hump. It's in a stable state,

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Speaker 1: which means, like you perturb it a little bit, it's

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Speaker 1: just gonna go back to hanging out in the molecules

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Speaker 1: it was in. It needs a big push to get

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Speaker 1: it out of its little local stable equilibrium and over

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Speaker 1: the hump, to release a lot of that energy and

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Speaker 1: fall into a different stable equilibrium of these products of

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Speaker 1: the chemical reaction. All right, well, those are the basics

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Speaker 1: of gunpowder. Let's get into how they figure into firecrackers, sparklers,

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Speaker 1: and fireworks. But first let's take a quick break. Al Right,

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Speaker 1: we are lighting up the podcast guy, I guess, and

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Speaker 1: celebrating your life forth here in the US and or

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Speaker 1: whenever you want to listen to this episode, and we're

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Speaker 1: talking about fireworks and gunpowder and how that all works

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Speaker 1: for me. I guess. Physico chemists perspective are re forcing

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Speaker 1: you to be a chemist in this episode, Daniel, as

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Speaker 1: much as that can possibly be. You know, my natural

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Speaker 1: state is thinking about like one fundamental particle maybe interacting

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Speaker 1: with another one. And one of the reasons I didn't

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Speaker 1: end up in chemistry is that it's so many particles

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Speaker 1: to keep track of all at once. It seems to

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Speaker 1: be like impossible to really ever understand what's going on.

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Speaker 1: You always have to zoom out and think about things statistically,

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Speaker 1: which makes me less comfortable. You're like a one thing

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Speaker 1: at a time kind of guy. Yeah, like drill down

426
00:22:39,800 --> 00:22:42,800
Speaker 1: the fundamental nature and look at it, you know. All right, Well,

427
00:22:42,840 --> 00:22:46,359
Speaker 1: we talked about gunpowder and how it's a mixture of charcoal, sulfur,

428
00:22:46,359 --> 00:22:49,160
Speaker 1: and potassium nitrate, and that's somehow when you put a

429
00:22:49,200 --> 00:22:51,840
Speaker 1: flame to it, it starts a chain reaction that transforms

430
00:22:51,880 --> 00:22:56,160
Speaker 1: the elements and also I guess releases energy. Now, um,

431
00:22:56,160 --> 00:22:59,520
Speaker 1: how is this energy released just kinetic energy or photons

432
00:22:59,600 --> 00:23:02,880
Speaker 1: or what's going Well, the energy is released both as heat, right,

433
00:23:02,920 --> 00:23:06,720
Speaker 1: because one shell of exploding gunpowder heats up the next

434
00:23:06,720 --> 00:23:08,520
Speaker 1: one and sets it off. And but I hate you

435
00:23:08,520 --> 00:23:10,879
Speaker 1: mean just like kinetic energy of the particles, right, Like

436
00:23:10,920 --> 00:23:14,119
Speaker 1: the molecule breaks apart and the pieces fly off in

437
00:23:14,359 --> 00:23:17,720
Speaker 1: different directions, and they're flying off with higher speeds. Exactly.

438
00:23:17,880 --> 00:23:20,639
Speaker 1: That's a good rough idea for what temperature is. What

439
00:23:20,800 --> 00:23:23,320
Speaker 1: heat is, It's the spedometer of the particles that are

440
00:23:23,320 --> 00:23:26,560
Speaker 1: inside it, so you release this energy, meaning that instead

441
00:23:26,560 --> 00:23:29,439
Speaker 1: of being bound into some molecule where you have like

442
00:23:29,520 --> 00:23:32,840
Speaker 1: springs that are compressed and tightly wound, now you release

443
00:23:32,920 --> 00:23:35,520
Speaker 1: those particles and they're flying out. The springs have released

444
00:23:35,520 --> 00:23:38,760
Speaker 1: their energy and they're zooming out and hitting other particles,

445
00:23:38,840 --> 00:23:41,760
Speaker 1: and that creates a shock wave, right, because you're hitting

446
00:23:41,760 --> 00:23:44,439
Speaker 1: other particles which then hit other particles. And that's what

447
00:23:44,640 --> 00:23:48,399
Speaker 1: sound is. Sound is a traveling compression wave. And so

448
00:23:48,480 --> 00:23:52,119
Speaker 1: as this explodes, it creates pressure in the air and

449
00:23:52,160 --> 00:23:54,919
Speaker 1: that pressure hits your ear and you hear it. So

450
00:23:54,960 --> 00:23:58,520
Speaker 1: the reason the firecracker sounds like a boom is because

451
00:23:58,520 --> 00:24:01,120
Speaker 1: it's a little bomb. It's created this pressure wave which

452
00:24:01,160 --> 00:24:03,760
Speaker 1: travels out and hits your ear, all right, So that's

453
00:24:03,800 --> 00:24:06,199
Speaker 1: the band that we hear when when a fire cracker

454
00:24:06,280 --> 00:24:08,119
Speaker 1: goes off. But what about the flash, Like where does

455
00:24:08,160 --> 00:24:10,399
Speaker 1: that light come from? That's again just from the energy

456
00:24:10,400 --> 00:24:12,399
Speaker 1: that's released. Some of it gets converted into sounds, some

457
00:24:12,480 --> 00:24:14,600
Speaker 1: of it gets converted into heat, and some of it

458
00:24:14,680 --> 00:24:17,840
Speaker 1: is released as photons, right, And so just like when

459
00:24:17,880 --> 00:24:20,160
Speaker 1: you're looking at a fire, it's releasing heat, but it's

460
00:24:20,160 --> 00:24:22,879
Speaker 1: also releasing visible light. You're gonna see some of that

461
00:24:22,920 --> 00:24:25,800
Speaker 1: with your eyes. Remember, anything that gets hot is going

462
00:24:25,880 --> 00:24:29,360
Speaker 1: to release photons. It's impossible to warm up without glowing.

463
00:24:29,840 --> 00:24:31,800
Speaker 1: Everything in physics we can think of as a black

464
00:24:31,840 --> 00:24:35,560
Speaker 1: body radiator, meaning that the temperature you are determines the

465
00:24:35,600 --> 00:24:38,240
Speaker 1: frequency in which you glow. So things that get hot

466
00:24:38,359 --> 00:24:40,560
Speaker 1: enough are going to glow in the visible light. Right.

467
00:24:40,760 --> 00:24:43,000
Speaker 1: I think we covered this in a previous episode. Like

468
00:24:43,040 --> 00:24:46,280
Speaker 1: when things are hot, the molecules are moving really fast,

469
00:24:46,359 --> 00:24:50,560
Speaker 1: and somehow that causes the electrons to drop down levels, right,

470
00:24:50,600 --> 00:24:53,399
Speaker 1: and then that's what releases the photons. The universe doesn't

471
00:24:53,440 --> 00:24:56,000
Speaker 1: like to have high energy density, likes to spread that

472
00:24:56,160 --> 00:24:58,919
Speaker 1: energy out. So if a bunch of molecules with energy,

473
00:24:59,040 --> 00:25:01,800
Speaker 1: either because there's a tron's have energy, or because the

474
00:25:01,840 --> 00:25:04,359
Speaker 1: molecules themselves a high kinetic energy, or maybe they have

475
00:25:04,440 --> 00:25:08,040
Speaker 1: vibrational energy in their bonds, that likes to spread out.

476
00:25:08,440 --> 00:25:11,520
Speaker 1: So anything that's excited will release that energy in terms

477
00:25:11,520 --> 00:25:15,159
Speaker 1: of photons, and that's how things are basically glowing. I

478
00:25:15,240 --> 00:25:20,320
Speaker 1: see when things are excited, they release photons, and an

479
00:25:20,320 --> 00:25:23,439
Speaker 1: explosion things are super exciting, the way kids get excited

480
00:25:23,440 --> 00:25:26,520
Speaker 1: in holidays and their faces glow. All right, Well, um,

481
00:25:26,560 --> 00:25:29,879
Speaker 1: I guess one question I had was how does gunpowder

482
00:25:29,920 --> 00:25:33,000
Speaker 1: relate to bad poop? Because I remember thinking or hearing

483
00:25:33,040 --> 00:25:36,399
Speaker 1: about how, you know, originally or maybe to make fireworks

484
00:25:36,480 --> 00:25:39,520
Speaker 1: or gunpower, you just need like um, bad poop, guana

485
00:25:39,800 --> 00:25:42,000
Speaker 1: or maybe seagull poop. I think I've heard that too.

486
00:25:42,119 --> 00:25:46,359
Speaker 1: It requires people used to mind guano because guano has

487
00:25:46,400 --> 00:25:50,880
Speaker 1: exceptionally high amounts of nitrogen, phosphate and potassium, and so

488
00:25:51,200 --> 00:25:54,520
Speaker 1: you need that potassium and that nitrogen to make gunpowder.

489
00:25:55,040 --> 00:25:57,800
Speaker 1: So I mean, gunpowder is not like something you find underground.

490
00:25:57,840 --> 00:26:01,159
Speaker 1: You don't like mind gunpowder that you mind, you know, salt,

491
00:26:01,240 --> 00:26:03,479
Speaker 1: for example, You have to put it together the chemical

492
00:26:03,560 --> 00:26:06,160
Speaker 1: mixture of other various elements. You need to find those

493
00:26:06,280 --> 00:26:10,240
Speaker 1: ingredients to manufacture gunpowder. The bats basically have concentrated a

494
00:26:10,320 --> 00:26:12,560
Speaker 1: lot of these things for you and delivered it to

495
00:26:12,600 --> 00:26:15,560
Speaker 1: you in the form of poop. That's super interesting, right,

496
00:26:15,600 --> 00:26:18,760
Speaker 1: isn't it Like it's a biological process that actually kind

497
00:26:18,760 --> 00:26:21,439
Speaker 1: of makes gunpowder, right, meaning like the poop is kind

498
00:26:21,440 --> 00:26:25,199
Speaker 1: of explosive. Well, they're essential ingredients in gunpowder. It's not

499
00:26:25,280 --> 00:26:27,680
Speaker 1: like they have really you know, explosive farts or something

500
00:26:27,720 --> 00:26:32,000
Speaker 1: like that. Well, you don't know the bats that I do,

501
00:26:32,920 --> 00:26:34,639
Speaker 1: but yeah, these are essential ingredients, and you know, we

502
00:26:34,720 --> 00:26:38,240
Speaker 1: rely on biological processes all the time to capture energy

503
00:26:38,520 --> 00:26:42,080
Speaker 1: to produce chemicals that we find important. You know, basically

504
00:26:42,119 --> 00:26:45,480
Speaker 1: everybody on the planet is eating the results of biological

505
00:26:45,520 --> 00:26:48,359
Speaker 1: processes that have stripped out energy from the sun and

506
00:26:48,400 --> 00:26:52,440
Speaker 1: taking carbon dioxide and do this essential chemical processing for us.

507
00:26:52,440 --> 00:26:54,680
Speaker 1: So yeah, we're all building on top of this huge

508
00:26:54,720 --> 00:27:00,119
Speaker 1: pyramid of photosynthesis and bath poop production. Yeah, it's interesting. Yeah, us,

509
00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:02,960
Speaker 1: when you eat a solid, you're kind of ingesting you know,

510
00:27:03,119 --> 00:27:07,919
Speaker 1: prepacked energy packets, right, prepacked by another biological being. Yeah, exactly,

511
00:27:07,960 --> 00:27:11,880
Speaker 1: it's this like pyramid of energy processing and chemical conservation

512
00:27:12,240 --> 00:27:14,360
Speaker 1: to take that energy and stored it in a useful way.

513
00:27:14,560 --> 00:27:17,679
Speaker 1: And it's much more economically feasible and easier to just

514
00:27:17,760 --> 00:27:21,040
Speaker 1: gather this from biological processes than to synthesize this in

515
00:27:21,040 --> 00:27:23,600
Speaker 1: the laboratory in a pure way. That could be done,

516
00:27:23,760 --> 00:27:27,240
Speaker 1: but then you have to do the bat's job for them. Yeah, no, thanks,

517
00:27:29,760 --> 00:27:31,840
Speaker 1: I wouldn't want to be, you know, poop for a living.

518
00:27:31,880 --> 00:27:34,000
Speaker 1: I guess. I think bats eat a lot of fruit, right,

519
00:27:34,040 --> 00:27:36,399
Speaker 1: so that doesn't sound too bad. There you go. I

520
00:27:36,400 --> 00:27:38,760
Speaker 1: guess I wouldn't want to, you know, go to that

521
00:27:38,800 --> 00:27:46,080
Speaker 1: fireworks display featuring fireworks made only from a cartoonist poop.

522
00:27:47,080 --> 00:27:49,159
Speaker 1: No bats or cartoonists were hurt in the making of

523
00:27:49,160 --> 00:27:53,240
Speaker 1: this fire But anyways, one thing that's interesting here that

524
00:27:53,280 --> 00:27:57,320
Speaker 1: you wrote down is that gunpowder and firecrackers and fireworks

525
00:27:57,320 --> 00:28:00,600
Speaker 1: in general are slow explosives. What is I mean? So

526
00:28:00,720 --> 00:28:03,840
Speaker 1: the speed at which the explosion happens determines a lot

527
00:28:03,880 --> 00:28:05,639
Speaker 1: about how useful it is and what it can be

528
00:28:05,680 --> 00:28:08,240
Speaker 1: used for. T and T and other related chemicals. Those

529
00:28:08,280 --> 00:28:12,160
Speaker 1: are actually more explosive, and so the speed at which

530
00:28:12,200 --> 00:28:14,760
Speaker 1: this thing blows up determines whether you're getting like a

531
00:28:14,920 --> 00:28:18,640
Speaker 1: big shock wave or a bang. And it's interesting that

532
00:28:18,720 --> 00:28:21,880
Speaker 1: black powder is better for fireworks because it blows up

533
00:28:21,960 --> 00:28:26,280
Speaker 1: more slowly than dynamite. Yeah, by a lot, right, Yeah,

534
00:28:26,280 --> 00:28:29,119
Speaker 1: black powder blows up at like a hundred yards per second,

535
00:28:29,160 --> 00:28:32,399
Speaker 1: that's the detonation velocity, and dynamite has a velocity of

536
00:28:32,440 --> 00:28:35,640
Speaker 1: detonation more than a thousand yards per second, so ten

537
00:28:35,800 --> 00:28:39,000
Speaker 1: times as strong. Yeah. It's super interesting because you know,

538
00:28:39,040 --> 00:28:41,560
Speaker 1: I think to us as humans that are limited kind

539
00:28:41,560 --> 00:28:44,800
Speaker 1: of capacity to these to see things and perceive things.

540
00:28:45,040 --> 00:28:47,440
Speaker 1: You know, to us, they're both just explosions. But I

541
00:28:47,440 --> 00:28:50,560
Speaker 1: guess if you had like a super duper fast camera,

542
00:28:50,640 --> 00:28:52,600
Speaker 1: you would see the difference between a T and T

543
00:28:52,760 --> 00:28:55,560
Speaker 1: explosion and a fireworks explosion, right, Like, one of them

544
00:28:55,560 --> 00:28:57,920
Speaker 1: would be ten times lower. So does that mean that

545
00:28:57,960 --> 00:29:01,520
Speaker 1: then firecracker explosions are less dangerous, but they'll still blow

546
00:29:01,600 --> 00:29:03,680
Speaker 1: up your fingers, or if you put enough of them,

547
00:29:03,720 --> 00:29:06,080
Speaker 1: they'll still blow up a tank for example. Right, Yeah,

548
00:29:06,080 --> 00:29:08,320
Speaker 1: they're both explosives, and you definitely don't want to mess

549
00:29:08,360 --> 00:29:11,200
Speaker 1: around with either of them. They're both definitely dangerous, but

550
00:29:11,240 --> 00:29:14,320
Speaker 1: they produce a different sort of character of explosion. So

551
00:29:14,320 --> 00:29:16,840
Speaker 1: you get like a longer duration of the explosion, and

552
00:29:16,880 --> 00:29:18,880
Speaker 1: I think you get a different mixture of light and

553
00:29:19,000 --> 00:29:21,480
Speaker 1: sound because the explosion is slower, so I think there's

554
00:29:21,520 --> 00:29:23,360
Speaker 1: more time for the stuff to heat up. And I

555
00:29:23,360 --> 00:29:26,520
Speaker 1: guess if it's faster too, it's also more destructive, right, Like,

556
00:29:26,680 --> 00:29:29,560
Speaker 1: you're concentrating more energy in a smaller place, which is

557
00:29:29,600 --> 00:29:33,320
Speaker 1: probably better for you know, destroying things. Yeah, when you

558
00:29:33,320 --> 00:29:35,240
Speaker 1: want to crack open a rock, then you want to

559
00:29:35,240 --> 00:29:38,840
Speaker 1: convert most of the energy into high pressure waves, whereas

560
00:29:38,880 --> 00:29:40,719
Speaker 1: with the firework. You don't want to produce as much

561
00:29:40,720 --> 00:29:42,960
Speaker 1: pressure because you don't want to pop people's ear drums.

562
00:29:43,080 --> 00:29:45,360
Speaker 1: So you want more the energy to produce bright flashes

563
00:29:45,400 --> 00:29:47,720
Speaker 1: of light, which requires heating this stuff up. So you

564
00:29:47,720 --> 00:29:51,120
Speaker 1: actually want to lower explosion velocity so that the stuff

565
00:29:51,120 --> 00:29:55,080
Speaker 1: actually gets hotter. Interesting. And so that's what a gunpowder is,

566
00:29:55,240 --> 00:29:57,200
Speaker 1: and that's what a firecracker is. You just take a

567
00:29:57,200 --> 00:29:59,320
Speaker 1: bunch of gunpowder, put in a little package and I

568
00:29:59,360 --> 00:30:02,200
Speaker 1: guess how attach a fuse twit, right, which is really

569
00:30:02,200 --> 00:30:04,080
Speaker 1: just a string, and so when you light up the string,

570
00:30:04,200 --> 00:30:06,800
Speaker 1: the fire kind of travels along the string and then

571
00:30:06,800 --> 00:30:10,120
Speaker 1: eventually it hits the gunpowder. And one nice thing about

572
00:30:10,280 --> 00:30:13,480
Speaker 1: black powder and gunpowder is that it's sort of insensitive

573
00:30:13,480 --> 00:30:15,640
Speaker 1: to friction. Like if you have a pile of it

574
00:30:15,680 --> 00:30:18,560
Speaker 1: and it rubs against itself, it doesn't just set itself off,

575
00:30:18,640 --> 00:30:20,680
Speaker 1: which is good. You wanted to only blow when you

576
00:30:20,760 --> 00:30:22,920
Speaker 1: want it to blow. And so what that's what the

577
00:30:22,920 --> 00:30:25,480
Speaker 1: fuse does, is it delivers that first spark of energy

578
00:30:25,640 --> 00:30:28,440
Speaker 1: to get the reaction going. Right. Oh, I see, well,

579
00:30:28,480 --> 00:30:30,560
Speaker 1: by friction, I think you mean like dropping it, Like

580
00:30:30,600 --> 00:30:33,240
Speaker 1: you don't want to drop a firecracker and have it explode.

581
00:30:33,920 --> 00:30:36,320
Speaker 1: But like I think, if you drop a stick of TNT,

582
00:30:36,480 --> 00:30:39,080
Speaker 1: it could blow up. Right, Yeah, TNT is much less stable.

583
00:30:39,120 --> 00:30:41,480
Speaker 1: Gunpowder if it rubs against itself, won't blow up. That.

584
00:30:41,600 --> 00:30:44,160
Speaker 1: You can blow up gunpowder without a spark, right, you

585
00:30:44,160 --> 00:30:46,840
Speaker 1: can just use percussion. That's how a gun works, right

586
00:30:46,880 --> 00:30:49,360
Speaker 1: black powder. Gunpowder is in the back of the bullet,

587
00:30:49,440 --> 00:30:51,280
Speaker 1: and then the hammer comes back and hits the back

588
00:30:51,280 --> 00:30:54,000
Speaker 1: of the bullet and that actually sets off the gunpowder.

589
00:30:54,320 --> 00:30:58,120
Speaker 1: So you can set off gunpowder without a spark. Oh interesting, Well,

590
00:30:58,160 --> 00:31:00,680
Speaker 1: I think these days and bullets they a little like

591
00:31:01,080 --> 00:31:03,280
Speaker 1: the back of the bullet has something that causes a spark.

592
00:31:03,360 --> 00:31:06,000
Speaker 1: But I think maybe you're thinking like way before when

593
00:31:06,040 --> 00:31:08,560
Speaker 1: they would use like they would literally pour gunpowder into

594
00:31:08,560 --> 00:31:12,160
Speaker 1: the gun. Then just hitting it, hitting gunpowder makes it ignite. Yea,

595
00:31:12,240 --> 00:31:14,560
Speaker 1: Some fire and guns just have a hammer, right, there's

596
00:31:14,600 --> 00:31:17,040
Speaker 1: no spark. You know a lot of those guns huge

597
00:31:17,160 --> 00:31:20,280
Speaker 1: range of technologies though. All right, well, those are firecrackers

598
00:31:20,320 --> 00:31:23,000
Speaker 1: that kind of go pop up up, um. But now

599
00:31:23,080 --> 00:31:25,480
Speaker 1: let's talk about sparklers. I think these are my favorite

600
00:31:25,480 --> 00:31:27,680
Speaker 1: from when I was a kid. I'm still a fan

601
00:31:27,720 --> 00:31:30,560
Speaker 1: of sparklers. Sparklers are super fun because you can hold

602
00:31:30,640 --> 00:31:32,800
Speaker 1: them right. It makes them feel much more immediate. Like

603
00:31:32,800 --> 00:31:35,000
Speaker 1: a firecracker, you said it in your run, it goes bang.

604
00:31:35,160 --> 00:31:37,160
Speaker 1: But a sparkler you can hold it. You could wave

605
00:31:37,160 --> 00:31:39,760
Speaker 1: it around and you can like draw in the air

606
00:31:39,880 --> 00:31:41,880
Speaker 1: with a light because the impression stays and your retina

607
00:31:41,960 --> 00:31:44,160
Speaker 1: for a while and also lasts for a while. You know,

608
00:31:44,200 --> 00:31:46,320
Speaker 1: you can burn for like thirty seconds or a minute.

609
00:31:46,520 --> 00:31:49,640
Speaker 1: So this are definitely one of my favorite childhood memories. Also, yeah,

610
00:31:49,680 --> 00:31:51,720
Speaker 1: they're pretty cool. And if you're not familiar, I guess

611
00:31:51,760 --> 00:31:53,920
Speaker 1: they're like a stick. There's usually like a metal stick

612
00:31:54,200 --> 00:31:56,560
Speaker 1: and the top half of it is covered in some

613
00:31:56,600 --> 00:31:59,840
Speaker 1: sort of gray stuff that makes it sort of look

614
00:31:59,880 --> 00:32:02,880
Speaker 1: like a corn dog. I guess, right, like a great

615
00:32:03,080 --> 00:32:05,520
Speaker 1: long corn dog. Although you don't know what a sparkler

616
00:32:05,560 --> 00:32:07,280
Speaker 1: looks like, you probably don't know what a corn dog

617
00:32:07,360 --> 00:32:10,360
Speaker 1: looks like either. It looks really gross. It does not

618
00:32:10,480 --> 00:32:13,600
Speaker 1: look like a corn dog. It's like totally gray and metallic.

619
00:32:13,800 --> 00:32:18,200
Speaker 1: It's completely unappetizing. Oh boy, did I just salt corn dogs?

620
00:32:19,080 --> 00:32:20,880
Speaker 1: Are you're a big fan of corn dots? It doesn't

621
00:32:20,880 --> 00:32:22,720
Speaker 1: matter how much mustard you put on that thing, it's

622
00:32:22,760 --> 00:32:27,120
Speaker 1: not gonna taste good, it's gonna it's gonna sparkle though

623
00:32:27,120 --> 00:32:29,600
Speaker 1: in your mouth. So the way these works is, um,

624
00:32:29,640 --> 00:32:31,719
Speaker 1: you take a sparkler and then you light up one end,

625
00:32:31,720 --> 00:32:33,440
Speaker 1: but it takes it. Sometimes it takes a while to

626
00:32:33,520 --> 00:32:35,160
Speaker 1: light up, right, Like, it's not like you put the

627
00:32:35,200 --> 00:32:37,520
Speaker 1: flame to it and it immediately starts sparkling. You kind

628
00:32:37,520 --> 00:32:39,280
Speaker 1: of have to wait a little bit. It's not like

629
00:32:39,280 --> 00:32:42,120
Speaker 1: a fuse that immediately goes. You've got to get it

630
00:32:42,200 --> 00:32:44,920
Speaker 1: like hot enough to really start. And a sparkler is

631
00:32:45,000 --> 00:32:48,640
Speaker 1: sort of like a slow motion firecracker. Like it's got

632
00:32:48,680 --> 00:32:51,680
Speaker 1: the same basic material inside of it. Again, it's black

633
00:32:51,720 --> 00:32:54,800
Speaker 1: powder doing a lot of the work releasing energy. That's

634
00:32:54,840 --> 00:32:57,400
Speaker 1: like the fuel that powers the sparkler. But then it's

635
00:32:57,440 --> 00:33:00,040
Speaker 1: got stuff inside of it which sparkles, and all of

636
00:33:00,040 --> 00:33:02,840
Speaker 1: the stuff that slows down the reaction so it doesn't

637
00:33:02,880 --> 00:33:05,760
Speaker 1: just like blow your hand off, right, it's sort of

638
00:33:05,800 --> 00:33:07,880
Speaker 1: diluted in a way, right, Like that's the idea to

639
00:33:07,880 --> 00:33:09,880
Speaker 1: slow down you do you mix it with other things

640
00:33:09,920 --> 00:33:13,000
Speaker 1: that don't explode exactly. You modify this mixture of like

641
00:33:13,160 --> 00:33:16,760
Speaker 1: potassium nitrate and sulfur and charcoal so that you get

642
00:33:16,800 --> 00:33:20,720
Speaker 1: a slower explosion. Sometimes adding more sulfur or more charcoal

643
00:33:20,960 --> 00:33:24,000
Speaker 1: reduces how fast the oxygen is released, and so you

644
00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:26,560
Speaker 1: can tinker with those mixtures to get a different speed

645
00:33:26,600 --> 00:33:29,400
Speaker 1: of the reaction essentially. And then for the sparkler, you

646
00:33:29,440 --> 00:33:32,040
Speaker 1: actually mix it with sugar, right like their sugar on

647
00:33:32,120 --> 00:33:34,400
Speaker 1: that thing. There is sugar in there. That's mostly just

648
00:33:34,480 --> 00:33:36,640
Speaker 1: to hold it together, to make it like a goop

649
00:33:36,680 --> 00:33:38,960
Speaker 1: and not just like a powder. But the reason that

650
00:33:39,040 --> 00:33:42,640
Speaker 1: it's sparkles is sort of weird. They have metal powder

651
00:33:42,680 --> 00:33:45,600
Speaker 1: in there, like you put aluminum or steel or something

652
00:33:45,640 --> 00:33:48,760
Speaker 1: in there, and then that steel gets really really hot

653
00:33:48,960 --> 00:33:51,600
Speaker 1: and it glows for the same reason we talked about earlier.

654
00:33:51,760 --> 00:33:53,960
Speaker 1: You take metal, you heat it up, it's gonna glow.

655
00:33:54,560 --> 00:33:57,959
Speaker 1: And so here you have metal powder which gets heated up,

656
00:33:58,000 --> 00:34:00,760
Speaker 1: and that's what's actually making those little sparkle that shoot out.

657
00:34:00,880 --> 00:34:04,800
Speaker 1: Oh interesting, that's the as the metal that heats it. Well,

658
00:34:04,840 --> 00:34:08,120
Speaker 1: if there's a central flame in the middle, right, and

659
00:34:08,160 --> 00:34:11,279
Speaker 1: then that's the big bright thought that you see in

660
00:34:11,280 --> 00:34:13,759
Speaker 1: a sparkler. But then there's other things shooting off of it,

661
00:34:14,160 --> 00:34:18,640
Speaker 1: these sparkles basically, and you're saying the sparkles are metal

662
00:34:18,880 --> 00:34:22,160
Speaker 1: that's getting super heat up by this central kind of flame.

663
00:34:22,960 --> 00:34:26,880
Speaker 1: It's basically tiny bullets, and a sparkler is shooting super

664
00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:29,759
Speaker 1: tiny little pellets of hot metal. It sounds like a

665
00:34:29,840 --> 00:34:32,080
Speaker 1: terrible idea, right now, give this to kids and let

666
00:34:32,080 --> 00:34:34,839
Speaker 1: them run around. But these things are so small they

667
00:34:34,880 --> 00:34:37,520
Speaker 1: burn up quickly and basically vaporize. But if you do

668
00:34:37,560 --> 00:34:39,919
Speaker 1: put your hand really close to a sparkler, you will

669
00:34:39,920 --> 00:34:42,480
Speaker 1: feel these tiny little hot pellets hitting your hand. It's

670
00:34:42,520 --> 00:34:45,480
Speaker 1: not a great idea. Well, what's interesting is sometimes it

671
00:34:45,600 --> 00:34:48,759
Speaker 1: sort of looks like almost like a snowflake pattern, right,

672
00:34:48,800 --> 00:34:51,680
Speaker 1: like do You'll see a big stream of sparkle and

673
00:34:51,680 --> 00:34:54,160
Speaker 1: then that will divide, and then those will then divide

674
00:34:54,160 --> 00:34:56,880
Speaker 1: in itself, making sort of like this beautiful tree like

675
00:34:57,120 --> 00:35:00,520
Speaker 1: almost snowflake like pattern. It's sort of like dolls, right.

676
00:35:00,520 --> 00:35:02,840
Speaker 1: They keep breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces, and

677
00:35:02,880 --> 00:35:05,560
Speaker 1: that's those little bits of metal getting heated up, and

678
00:35:05,600 --> 00:35:07,600
Speaker 1: if they're big enough, they will split in half before

679
00:35:07,640 --> 00:35:10,400
Speaker 1: they completely vaporize, and then maybe split it half again.

680
00:35:10,640 --> 00:35:13,600
Speaker 1: So you get these really cool patterns and their ephemeral. Right,

681
00:35:13,600 --> 00:35:16,760
Speaker 1: they don't last very long. It all happens very very quickly,

682
00:35:16,880 --> 00:35:19,359
Speaker 1: but long enough for the pattern to remain in your eye.

683
00:35:19,520 --> 00:35:21,719
Speaker 1: So it's really a beautiful effect. And I guess why

684
00:35:21,719 --> 00:35:24,680
Speaker 1: does it need to be metal that heats up like

685
00:35:24,719 --> 00:35:27,560
Speaker 1: white as metal give off light when it gets heat

686
00:35:27,640 --> 00:35:30,640
Speaker 1: up more than other things like carbon. That's a good question.

687
00:35:30,640 --> 00:35:33,640
Speaker 1: I think you use metal because it doesn't burn, right,

688
00:35:33,680 --> 00:35:36,880
Speaker 1: It just heats up and vaporizes, so like absorbs the

689
00:35:36,960 --> 00:35:39,399
Speaker 1: energy and then gives it off as light rather than

690
00:35:39,440 --> 00:35:43,360
Speaker 1: like contributing to the explosion itself. So it's fairly inert

691
00:35:43,440 --> 00:35:45,800
Speaker 1: that way. Chemically, it's not getting modified, it's just getting

692
00:35:45,800 --> 00:35:49,560
Speaker 1: heated up and vaporized, all right. Well, and and so

693
00:35:49,640 --> 00:35:52,680
Speaker 1: you heard it from Daniel, sparkers have sugar in them,

694
00:35:52,719 --> 00:35:58,400
Speaker 1: so um, don't give him a dry too close to

695
00:35:58,440 --> 00:36:01,359
Speaker 1: one of your little child. We just give the bad

696
00:36:01,400 --> 00:36:04,279
Speaker 1: advice here today. Then. But they are super fun and

697
00:36:04,320 --> 00:36:06,000
Speaker 1: they are super cool, and so the next time you

698
00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:08,279
Speaker 1: look at one, you know, think about all the processes

699
00:36:08,320 --> 00:36:10,640
Speaker 1: that are going on in there. Right. Let's get into

700
00:36:10,680 --> 00:36:13,399
Speaker 1: now how far works, the big ones, the ones that

701
00:36:13,960 --> 00:36:16,640
Speaker 1: light up the sky and have all these amazing displays

702
00:36:16,640 --> 00:36:19,160
Speaker 1: and colors. How they work. We'll dive into that, but

703
00:36:19,239 --> 00:36:34,200
Speaker 1: first let's take another quick break. Al Right, we are

704
00:36:34,320 --> 00:36:37,440
Speaker 1: celebrating I guess July fourth, Dannel. This episode will come

705
00:36:37,440 --> 00:36:42,520
Speaker 1: out around July four. Yeah, and all the summer holidays,

706
00:36:42,520 --> 00:36:44,760
Speaker 1: you know, in France, this bestial day, and it feels

707
00:36:44,800 --> 00:36:47,480
Speaker 1: like a lot of cultures have a reason to set

708
00:36:47,520 --> 00:36:50,000
Speaker 1: off fireworks in the summer, right right, Who doesn't love

709
00:36:50,040 --> 00:36:56,440
Speaker 1: a good explosion? The particle physicist us, well, all right,

710
00:36:56,480 --> 00:37:01,759
Speaker 1: I won't get into it anymore and explode, Daniel, I'm

711
00:37:01,800 --> 00:37:05,120
Speaker 1: just trolling. You. Make sure to call it the big

712
00:37:05,120 --> 00:37:07,200
Speaker 1: smash and put the big bank, since it all means

713
00:37:07,239 --> 00:37:10,759
Speaker 1: the same to you anyways, Let's be more confusing. Sounds good,

714
00:37:10,840 --> 00:37:14,400
Speaker 1: let's do how about the small the small smash that

715
00:37:14,480 --> 00:37:19,759
Speaker 1: needs to be extra extra confusing, the micro smash that

716
00:37:19,880 --> 00:37:23,279
Speaker 1: started it all, the small smash, formerly known as the

717
00:37:23,320 --> 00:37:27,040
Speaker 1: big bang. That's what we need to change the name

718
00:37:27,080 --> 00:37:29,920
Speaker 1: of something everybody already knows the name of now, so

719
00:37:29,960 --> 00:37:35,760
Speaker 1: that some people can say, actually, it's now called Are

720
00:37:35,840 --> 00:37:40,160
Speaker 1: you Are you mocking chemists or physicists with that, boy? Physicists.

721
00:37:42,880 --> 00:37:45,080
Speaker 1: I would never mock chemists, because they're better at making

722
00:37:45,120 --> 00:37:47,640
Speaker 1: poison gas and bombs than I am. I see, you

723
00:37:47,680 --> 00:37:49,920
Speaker 1: don't want to lose that chemistry with them. But all right,

724
00:37:49,960 --> 00:37:52,239
Speaker 1: so now let's get into now fireworks. Now, this is

725
00:37:52,239 --> 00:37:54,600
Speaker 1: the question we started off at the beginning. So these

726
00:37:54,600 --> 00:37:56,480
Speaker 1: are the ones that most people think of, you know,

727
00:37:56,960 --> 00:37:59,719
Speaker 1: July four or Steel Day. They throw these up in

728
00:37:59,760 --> 00:38:02,160
Speaker 1: this They light up the sky. There's all kinds of

729
00:38:02,160 --> 00:38:04,839
Speaker 1: colors nowadays there's all kinds of shapes too. Yeah, they're

730
00:38:04,920 --> 00:38:08,400
Speaker 1: very dramatic. And fireworks are basically a combination of everything

731
00:38:08,400 --> 00:38:11,640
Speaker 1: we've talked about so far. Their combination of sparklers and

732
00:38:11,800 --> 00:38:15,600
Speaker 1: firecrackers and then all wrapped together in a little mini rocket.

733
00:38:15,880 --> 00:38:18,840
Speaker 1: One of the essential components in fireworks are these things

734
00:38:18,920 --> 00:38:22,640
Speaker 1: called stars, which again are not the burning balls of

735
00:38:22,640 --> 00:38:25,360
Speaker 1: plasma and the sky. There's something totally different. They're like

736
00:38:25,400 --> 00:38:29,839
Speaker 1: sparkler like stuff formed into little balls. Oh interesting, you're

737
00:38:29,840 --> 00:38:32,720
Speaker 1: saying a firework. It's like a bunch of sparklers stuffed

738
00:38:32,719 --> 00:38:35,840
Speaker 1: in with an explosion. Exactly when you see the fireworks

739
00:38:35,840 --> 00:38:38,279
Speaker 1: in the sky and you see it's sparkling, it's a

740
00:38:38,400 --> 00:38:40,840
Speaker 1: sparkler up there. And so the way you make a

741
00:38:40,880 --> 00:38:43,440
Speaker 1: firework is that you pack a bunch of little balls

742
00:38:43,520 --> 00:38:46,160
Speaker 1: of sparkler together into a little tube. And then you

743
00:38:46,200 --> 00:38:48,360
Speaker 1: also fill it with black powder, which sprays all the

744
00:38:48,360 --> 00:38:51,200
Speaker 1: sparklers out when it explodes, and that's what makes your

745
00:38:51,200 --> 00:38:54,800
Speaker 1: pattern in the sky. Oh interesting, really, so I guess.

746
00:38:54,840 --> 00:38:56,880
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not saying you should do this, but

747
00:38:57,120 --> 00:38:59,160
Speaker 1: you could do this. Like if you put a bunch

748
00:38:59,160 --> 00:39:01,440
Speaker 1: of sparklers in with a firecracker, you can make your

749
00:39:01,440 --> 00:39:04,040
Speaker 1: own firework kind of. That's what a firework is exactly.

750
00:39:04,040 --> 00:39:07,719
Speaker 1: It's just sparkler stuff packed in with black powder that

751
00:39:07,840 --> 00:39:10,080
Speaker 1: was high precision in order to get it to explode

752
00:39:10,080 --> 00:39:12,320
Speaker 1: in just the right way and at the right time,

753
00:39:12,520 --> 00:39:14,960
Speaker 1: and then you also have to somehow launch it up

754
00:39:14,960 --> 00:39:17,719
Speaker 1: into the air. So it's a bit of a complicated construction,

755
00:39:17,920 --> 00:39:21,240
Speaker 1: but those are the essential ingredients, black powder and sparkler stuff.

756
00:39:21,400 --> 00:39:23,320
Speaker 1: I see. Well, let's break it down. How does the

757
00:39:23,600 --> 00:39:27,640
Speaker 1: rocket launching part work. Is it like a rocket rocket? No,

758
00:39:27,760 --> 00:39:29,880
Speaker 1: it's more like a gun. You have like a steel

759
00:39:29,960 --> 00:39:32,840
Speaker 1: tube with black powder in the bottom, and then the

760
00:39:32,880 --> 00:39:35,080
Speaker 1: firework is sitting on top of that. So you light

761
00:39:35,200 --> 00:39:37,319
Speaker 1: some black powder in the bottom of the tube and

762
00:39:37,400 --> 00:39:40,959
Speaker 1: that explosion like a firecracker inside of it sets off

763
00:39:41,040 --> 00:39:43,520
Speaker 1: the firecracker to fly up into the sky and at

764
00:39:43,520 --> 00:39:46,560
Speaker 1: the same time lights the fuse at the bottom of it.

765
00:39:47,200 --> 00:39:49,200
Speaker 1: So that's how you launched the thing up. It's just

766
00:39:49,239 --> 00:39:51,799
Speaker 1: like a little gun. But it's not like a gun. Like,

767
00:39:51,800 --> 00:39:54,960
Speaker 1: it's not an explosion that propels it upward. Right, It's

768
00:39:54,960 --> 00:39:57,759
Speaker 1: more like a controlled you know, like a real rocket right. Like.

769
00:39:57,800 --> 00:40:00,640
Speaker 1: It's not like a big bang. It's like a right

770
00:40:01,000 --> 00:40:05,160
Speaker 1: like it has to expel the propellant slowly kind of. Well, though,

771
00:40:05,200 --> 00:40:07,200
Speaker 1: the explosion happens at the bottom of the tube. It's

772
00:40:07,239 --> 00:40:10,680
Speaker 1: like our mortar, right, and that explosion pushes the firework up.

773
00:40:10,960 --> 00:40:13,239
Speaker 1: It's not like the firework is burning on its way

774
00:40:13,320 --> 00:40:15,880
Speaker 1: up and pushing itself up. It's more like it's gotten

775
00:40:15,960 --> 00:40:19,319
Speaker 1: thrown up. It's not a projectile motion, just from the

776
00:40:19,320 --> 00:40:22,040
Speaker 1: initial explosion that pushed it out of the tube. A

777
00:40:22,160 --> 00:40:25,760
Speaker 1: rocket is like continuous burning that's pushing it up, has thrust,

778
00:40:26,080 --> 00:40:28,799
Speaker 1: but a firework doesn't. It's just like thrown up by

779
00:40:28,840 --> 00:40:31,239
Speaker 1: this too, more like a mortar. Well, maybe that's some

780
00:40:31,280 --> 00:40:32,759
Speaker 1: of them, right, I think some of them. How do

781
00:40:32,960 --> 00:40:35,239
Speaker 1: you sort of a rocket like a thing? Yeah, you

782
00:40:35,280 --> 00:40:37,719
Speaker 1: can definitely buy some fireworks that you can light off

783
00:40:37,719 --> 00:40:41,440
Speaker 1: yourself that are like bottle rockets, right, that are propelled

784
00:40:41,480 --> 00:40:43,360
Speaker 1: by those the kind of I'm thinking about, you know,

785
00:40:43,400 --> 00:40:45,480
Speaker 1: the big ones you see at the displays, those are

786
00:40:45,480 --> 00:40:48,279
Speaker 1: almost all just projectiles that are fired up by an

787
00:40:48,280 --> 00:40:51,479
Speaker 1: initial explosion. But yeah, there are some versions that are

788
00:40:51,520 --> 00:40:54,520
Speaker 1: like more like rockets that have a continuous explosion. M

789
00:40:55,160 --> 00:40:56,920
Speaker 1: I see, Well, I guess it's it's gonna be tricky

790
00:40:57,000 --> 00:41:00,880
Speaker 1: because you want to explode something a rocket something at

791
00:41:00,880 --> 00:41:03,239
Speaker 1: the bottom, but you don't want it to somehow, you know,

792
00:41:03,320 --> 00:41:06,560
Speaker 1: burn up your gunpowder and sparklers that are at the

793
00:41:06,600 --> 00:41:09,279
Speaker 1: front exactly, So they pack it very carefully, and they

794
00:41:09,320 --> 00:41:12,480
Speaker 1: have like multiple stages, and they have fuses that have

795
00:41:12,640 --> 00:41:15,919
Speaker 1: time delays, so they have materials that burn at very

796
00:41:15,920 --> 00:41:18,360
Speaker 1: well known rates. So you light this fuse and you

797
00:41:18,400 --> 00:41:20,919
Speaker 1: have like four seconds before it gets to the top

798
00:41:20,960 --> 00:41:22,600
Speaker 1: of the firework and sets off the rest of it.

799
00:41:22,640 --> 00:41:24,879
Speaker 1: So you're right, it's a very delicately balanced system. Yeah,

800
00:41:24,880 --> 00:41:26,480
Speaker 1: and it's interesting what you said. You got a time

801
00:41:26,520 --> 00:41:29,440
Speaker 1: it right, because you want the fireworks to explode and

802
00:41:29,520 --> 00:41:31,959
Speaker 1: give you all the sparkles like at the very top,

803
00:41:32,040 --> 00:41:34,080
Speaker 1: not as it's going up or right as soon as

804
00:41:34,120 --> 00:41:36,120
Speaker 1: it takes off. Yeah, and some of these things have

805
00:41:36,280 --> 00:41:39,200
Speaker 1: like two or three different stages, so they'll blow up

806
00:41:39,239 --> 00:41:41,200
Speaker 1: once and then they blow up again at the top,

807
00:41:41,239 --> 00:41:42,920
Speaker 1: and then on the way down they blow up one

808
00:41:42,920 --> 00:41:45,759
Speaker 1: more time. So people have gotten really advanced with the

809
00:41:45,840 --> 00:41:48,279
Speaker 1: technology for how to put these things together to make

810
00:41:48,280 --> 00:41:50,839
Speaker 1: the most spectacular displays in the sky. But it's all

811
00:41:50,880 --> 00:41:53,719
Speaker 1: about how you package this stuff so the explosions happen

812
00:41:53,760 --> 00:41:55,959
Speaker 1: at the right time. Right. They can even make things

813
00:41:56,000 --> 00:41:58,000
Speaker 1: like a smiley face. Right, they can make a firework

814
00:41:58,040 --> 00:42:00,279
Speaker 1: that blows up into a smiley face. Yeah, you can.

815
00:42:00,360 --> 00:42:02,600
Speaker 1: You can make all sorts of crazy shapes. And the

816
00:42:02,640 --> 00:42:06,719
Speaker 1: way they do this is by very carefully arranging those stars,

817
00:42:06,760 --> 00:42:11,080
Speaker 1: these pieces of sparkler inside that tube and arranging the

818
00:42:11,080 --> 00:42:13,600
Speaker 1: black powder around them in just the right way, so

819
00:42:13,640 --> 00:42:15,880
Speaker 1: when it blows up from the center, it ends up

820
00:42:15,920 --> 00:42:18,560
Speaker 1: shooting those things out in just that right pattern, because

821
00:42:18,560 --> 00:42:20,520
Speaker 1: when that black powder goes off, it then sets off

822
00:42:20,520 --> 00:42:23,200
Speaker 1: the sparklers, which then glow. But it must take a

823
00:42:23,239 --> 00:42:27,200
Speaker 1: lot of experimentation exactly how to arrange those stars inside

824
00:42:27,239 --> 00:42:29,759
Speaker 1: the firework to give you that reaction. I imagine they

825
00:42:29,840 --> 00:42:32,360
Speaker 1: must fail a lot that or they've done some really

826
00:42:32,360 --> 00:42:35,480
Speaker 1: complicated computer simulations to figure out exactly how to build

827
00:42:35,480 --> 00:42:38,480
Speaker 1: these things interesting? What do you think it is? Well,

828
00:42:38,520 --> 00:42:40,120
Speaker 1: I think these things have been around for a lot

829
00:42:40,160 --> 00:42:42,880
Speaker 1: longer than fancy computers, so initially it must have just

830
00:42:42,920 --> 00:42:45,120
Speaker 1: been trial and error. You know, people like have an

831
00:42:45,200 --> 00:42:47,960
Speaker 1: artistic skill at this, you know, coming up with clever

832
00:42:48,120 --> 00:42:50,400
Speaker 1: things that you can do with your limited ability to

833
00:42:50,520 --> 00:42:54,160
Speaker 1: arrange the stars inside the fireworks, and then people being

834
00:42:54,160 --> 00:42:57,200
Speaker 1: creative and discovering new stuff these days. I bet they

835
00:42:57,200 --> 00:43:00,200
Speaker 1: could use computers, but I'm not sure if anybody's doing that. Yeah,

836
00:43:00,200 --> 00:43:02,600
Speaker 1: I guess you. You know, to get a circle, for example,

837
00:43:02,640 --> 00:43:04,560
Speaker 1: for a smile of phase, you just kind of arranged

838
00:43:04,600 --> 00:43:08,520
Speaker 1: the sparklers a circle around your explosion, right, your explosive,

839
00:43:08,680 --> 00:43:10,359
Speaker 1: and then when they blows up, it will come out

840
00:43:10,400 --> 00:43:12,799
Speaker 1: in the circle. And if what you want is a heart,

841
00:43:13,080 --> 00:43:14,680
Speaker 1: then you move some of those a little bit further

842
00:43:14,719 --> 00:43:16,719
Speaker 1: away and some of those a little closer in so

843
00:43:16,800 --> 00:43:19,040
Speaker 1: they burn up sooner. And some of these things are

844
00:43:19,080 --> 00:43:21,400
Speaker 1: not like a circle or a heart, they're like a

845
00:43:21,440 --> 00:43:24,200
Speaker 1: big flower, like a chrysanthemum, right, and from that you

846
00:43:24,280 --> 00:43:26,920
Speaker 1: just have like stars everywhere, all right, So then how

847
00:43:26,920 --> 00:43:28,560
Speaker 1: do they how do the colors work? How do you

848
00:43:28,560 --> 00:43:32,200
Speaker 1: get different colors of sparklers, So the colors come from

849
00:43:32,200 --> 00:43:35,560
Speaker 1: the different kinds of metal inside the sparkler. Remember the

850
00:43:35,600 --> 00:43:38,640
Speaker 1: reason the sparkler sparkle is because you have metal powder.

851
00:43:38,719 --> 00:43:41,520
Speaker 1: That metal gets really hot and then it glows. But

852
00:43:41,560 --> 00:43:44,040
Speaker 1: these metals are made of different elements, so they tend

853
00:43:44,040 --> 00:43:46,760
Speaker 1: to glow at different frequencies because these metals have different

854
00:43:46,800 --> 00:43:49,719
Speaker 1: energy levels that they like to release photons at. So

855
00:43:49,920 --> 00:43:53,120
Speaker 1: different kinds of metals will glow in different colors. And

856
00:43:53,160 --> 00:43:55,560
Speaker 1: you know, for example, if you sprinkle copper powder into

857
00:43:55,560 --> 00:43:59,200
Speaker 1: a flame, the flame turns green, and so different metals

858
00:43:59,239 --> 00:44:02,360
Speaker 1: give you different colors. Where does that come from? I guess?

859
00:44:02,400 --> 00:44:05,640
Speaker 1: I guess because when it's when the photon comes out

860
00:44:05,640 --> 00:44:08,879
Speaker 1: of the metal, that comes with a specific frequency which

861
00:44:08,920 --> 00:44:11,520
Speaker 1: is related to its energy. Just like if you look

862
00:44:11,520 --> 00:44:13,919
Speaker 1: at a star, you can tell what it's made out

863
00:44:13,920 --> 00:44:16,480
Speaker 1: of based on the frequency of light that's coming to

864
00:44:16,520 --> 00:44:19,680
Speaker 1: you from the star. And that's because different elements glow

865
00:44:19,800 --> 00:44:23,240
Speaker 1: with different fingerprints, and that comes from the energy levels

866
00:44:23,239 --> 00:44:25,680
Speaker 1: of the electrons going around the atom and also in

867
00:44:25,719 --> 00:44:30,160
Speaker 1: more complicated situations, from rotational or vibrational modes of a molecule.

868
00:44:30,400 --> 00:44:32,640
Speaker 1: But usually it's just from the energy levels of the atom,

869
00:44:32,719 --> 00:44:35,239
Speaker 1: and those are all different for different elements, and so

870
00:44:35,280 --> 00:44:38,040
Speaker 1: you get different mixtures of colors for different elements. So,

871
00:44:38,080 --> 00:44:40,600
Speaker 1: for example, if I wanted an orange fire work, what

872
00:44:40,640 --> 00:44:44,440
Speaker 1: would I use? Then you'd use calcium. Calcium. Oh, that's

873
00:44:44,440 --> 00:44:48,120
Speaker 1: a metal, right, And these things don't have to be metals, right,

874
00:44:48,120 --> 00:44:50,360
Speaker 1: They just have to be elements that can accept heat

875
00:44:50,640 --> 00:44:55,680
Speaker 1: and not participate in the reaction. What about like red red?

876
00:44:55,840 --> 00:44:58,040
Speaker 1: You can either use lithium, which is going to give

877
00:44:58,040 --> 00:45:00,279
Speaker 1: you like a medium red or strawn ty them for

878
00:45:00,360 --> 00:45:03,640
Speaker 1: like a really intense red col What what are some

879
00:45:03,719 --> 00:45:06,719
Speaker 1: other colors? So you can get like yellow from sodium

880
00:45:06,840 --> 00:45:09,560
Speaker 1: or green from barium. Copper actually gives you more of

881
00:45:09,600 --> 00:45:12,480
Speaker 1: a blue than a green. You can get violet from

882
00:45:12,480 --> 00:45:16,359
Speaker 1: potassium or rubidium. You can even get gold colors from

883
00:45:16,440 --> 00:45:20,360
Speaker 1: charcoal or iron. Things like aluminum or titanium tend to

884
00:45:20,400 --> 00:45:22,120
Speaker 1: give you white. So you have a whole palette to

885
00:45:22,120 --> 00:45:25,040
Speaker 1: play with if you're the person designing these fireworks. Interesting,

886
00:45:25,120 --> 00:45:29,239
Speaker 1: it's almost like you're painting with materials, right, And a

887
00:45:29,239 --> 00:45:31,400
Speaker 1: lot of these things are made sort of by hand,

888
00:45:32,000 --> 00:45:35,680
Speaker 1: like they are these fireworks masters that pack these things

889
00:45:35,760 --> 00:45:39,360
Speaker 1: together and very carefully mix the ingredients to get exactly

890
00:45:39,400 --> 00:45:43,160
Speaker 1: what they want, you know, magnesium or aluminum or whatever.

891
00:45:43,840 --> 00:45:45,560
Speaker 1: And so they tend to make these things sort of

892
00:45:45,560 --> 00:45:47,960
Speaker 1: by hand and cut them into these pieces. And that's

893
00:45:47,960 --> 00:45:49,879
Speaker 1: why some of these things are very expensive because they're

894
00:45:49,880 --> 00:45:53,960
Speaker 1: like fabricated by artisans whoa it's like organic, you know,

895
00:45:54,160 --> 00:45:59,040
Speaker 1: artisan works. Somebody with like a wax mustache and a

896
00:45:59,080 --> 00:46:01,759
Speaker 1: long beard and make this out in Brooklyn warehouse. Right now,

897
00:46:01,920 --> 00:46:06,040
Speaker 1: you're you're assuming they're hipsters for a word, hipsters, But

898
00:46:06,080 --> 00:46:08,120
Speaker 1: I wonder if that's a stressful job, you know, dealing

899
00:46:08,120 --> 00:46:10,719
Speaker 1: with explosives because you're you're sort of crafting this thing

900
00:46:10,800 --> 00:46:13,440
Speaker 1: by hand of something that can explode at any moment.

901
00:46:13,680 --> 00:46:17,680
Speaker 1: I'm sure they have good insurance. I don't know if

902
00:46:17,719 --> 00:46:21,000
Speaker 1: having good insurance, but it made me want to do

903
00:46:21,120 --> 00:46:24,040
Speaker 1: something dangerous. It's almost the opposite. If you need good

904
00:46:24,080 --> 00:46:28,000
Speaker 1: insurance or something, maybe you should be doing it. Maybe not.

905
00:46:28,120 --> 00:46:30,080
Speaker 1: But you know how it is, everybody gets inspired by

906
00:46:30,080 --> 00:46:32,440
Speaker 1: something different, and for some folks this must be like

907
00:46:32,480 --> 00:46:35,480
Speaker 1: a deep passion. You know. The mixture of chemistry and

908
00:46:35,640 --> 00:46:38,600
Speaker 1: artistry together probably really satisfying for a lot of folks.

909
00:46:38,719 --> 00:46:42,239
Speaker 1: And then you get to display your works. Everybody goes, oh, right,

910
00:46:42,400 --> 00:46:45,000
Speaker 1: almost everybody loves fireworks, so you must be very popular.

911
00:46:45,080 --> 00:46:48,640
Speaker 1: That's right, almost everybody except you, I guess. But what

912
00:46:48,719 --> 00:46:50,600
Speaker 1: about the ones that you know? Sometimes you see these

913
00:46:50,640 --> 00:46:54,560
Speaker 1: like they explode and then the little bits explode themselves,

914
00:46:54,600 --> 00:46:57,360
Speaker 1: you know, like like a multi tier explosion almost like

915
00:46:57,360 --> 00:46:59,880
Speaker 1: it explodes and it gets us sparkles, but then the

916
00:47:00,000 --> 00:47:03,719
Speaker 1: sparkles after a little bit, explode themselves into other colors.

917
00:47:03,760 --> 00:47:06,000
Speaker 1: How do they do that? Yeah, that's all in the packaging.

918
00:47:06,239 --> 00:47:08,799
Speaker 1: You can make like little cardboard packages that have sparklers

919
00:47:08,800 --> 00:47:11,960
Speaker 1: inside them, and they're surrounded by sparklers, and so initially

920
00:47:12,000 --> 00:47:14,839
Speaker 1: the outside sparklers go and then when those burn after

921
00:47:14,840 --> 00:47:17,120
Speaker 1: a while, they heat up what's inside, which can then burn.

922
00:47:17,360 --> 00:47:20,440
Speaker 1: So it's all about timing these multi stage reactions. You

923
00:47:20,520 --> 00:47:23,920
Speaker 1: do that based on how you're packaging this firework right, right,

924
00:47:23,920 --> 00:47:25,759
Speaker 1: And something interesting you just said is that these things

925
00:47:25,760 --> 00:47:28,279
Speaker 1: are made out of cardboard, right, Like you kind of

926
00:47:28,320 --> 00:47:31,640
Speaker 1: have to make him out of materials that burn up, right, Like,

927
00:47:31,719 --> 00:47:33,719
Speaker 1: you can't make a firework out of put like a

928
00:47:33,760 --> 00:47:36,000
Speaker 1: steel to or a steel plate on it, because that

929
00:47:36,040 --> 00:47:38,360
Speaker 1: thing's gonna fall back down and maybe hurt somebody. Everything

930
00:47:38,360 --> 00:47:40,160
Speaker 1: has to be made out of paper, and it has

931
00:47:40,200 --> 00:47:42,120
Speaker 1: to be the right strength to hold the stuff together,

932
00:47:42,239 --> 00:47:44,880
Speaker 1: but not so strong that it can't explode. Right, And

933
00:47:45,000 --> 00:47:48,399
Speaker 1: so cardboard and paper is actually just about the perfect strength. Wow,

934
00:47:48,440 --> 00:47:52,680
Speaker 1: so you need to be like a paper artisan too. Yeah.

935
00:47:52,680 --> 00:47:55,280
Speaker 1: I don't think we're like three D printing fireworks or anything,

936
00:47:56,200 --> 00:48:00,920
Speaker 1: but not yet. You just am up with an interesting

937
00:48:00,920 --> 00:48:02,920
Speaker 1: idea there. I wonder if you can get more precise

938
00:48:02,920 --> 00:48:05,480
Speaker 1: sculptures if you if you do three D print them. Yeah,

939
00:48:05,520 --> 00:48:07,920
Speaker 1: you might be able to guide the sparklers in exactly

940
00:48:07,960 --> 00:48:10,240
Speaker 1: the right direction. You could have like tubes or sparkler

941
00:48:10,320 --> 00:48:12,840
Speaker 1: guides or something that they get them to do crazy stuff.

942
00:48:13,120 --> 00:48:16,040
Speaker 1: I think three D printing and computer modeling probably the

943
00:48:16,040 --> 00:48:20,200
Speaker 1: future of artisanal fireworks. Wow. Yeah, you could have like

944
00:48:20,239 --> 00:48:23,160
Speaker 1: a firework that explodes into a photo of your face

945
00:48:23,280 --> 00:48:26,399
Speaker 1: or something. Yeah, or the cat video that everybody's been

946
00:48:26,400 --> 00:48:29,560
Speaker 1: wanting and waiting for. Oh my gosh, that would be

947
00:48:29,640 --> 00:48:33,800
Speaker 1: next level, like animated fireworks. Can you imagine like fireworks

948
00:48:33,800 --> 00:48:36,040
Speaker 1: and move? Yeah, that would be pretty incredible. It sounds

949
00:48:36,040 --> 00:48:39,520
Speaker 1: like something out of Harry Potter. Maybe. Yeah, four D fireworks, Well,

950
00:48:39,560 --> 00:48:41,600
Speaker 1: nowadays it kind of seems like the future of these

951
00:48:41,719 --> 00:48:44,440
Speaker 1: displays that are drones. They're using drones more and more

952
00:48:44,480 --> 00:48:46,719
Speaker 1: and they're almost kind of as and you can't do

953
00:48:46,840 --> 00:48:49,959
Speaker 1: cat videos with drones. Yeah, you actually can, and they're

954
00:48:49,960 --> 00:48:52,880
Speaker 1: not explosive and they don't release toxic chemicals into the

955
00:48:52,960 --> 00:48:55,880
Speaker 1: air and nobody gets blown up. So drones are pretty

956
00:48:55,920 --> 00:48:59,320
Speaker 1: nice alternative, or like the green alternative to artisanal organic

957
00:48:59,680 --> 00:49:03,360
Speaker 1: fire works. They got out greened. And I love a

958
00:49:03,360 --> 00:49:06,080
Speaker 1: fireworks display like anybody else. The thing that I wonder

959
00:49:06,160 --> 00:49:08,840
Speaker 1: sometimes when I watch fireworks displace is all those people

960
00:49:08,920 --> 00:49:12,279
Speaker 1: taking videos of fireworkers place. What was wondering, like, what

961
00:49:12,440 --> 00:49:16,719
Speaker 1: percentage of those videos is anybody ever watching? You can

962
00:49:16,760 --> 00:49:20,359
Speaker 1: ask about any video ever taken. Then you'll you take

963
00:49:20,360 --> 00:49:23,520
Speaker 1: a video of your kid eating a pizza slice. You

964
00:49:23,560 --> 00:49:25,879
Speaker 1: know you're not gonna watching that later, but you want

965
00:49:25,880 --> 00:49:28,239
Speaker 1: to capture the moment. I do go back and watch

966
00:49:28,360 --> 00:49:31,440
Speaker 1: silly videos of everyday moments of my kids back when

967
00:49:31,480 --> 00:49:33,279
Speaker 1: they were really young, and I think, oh, that's nice

968
00:49:33,320 --> 00:49:36,360
Speaker 1: to get transported back to that day. You remember what

969
00:49:36,400 --> 00:49:39,560
Speaker 1: they were like. But I don't watch fireworks videos, you know,

970
00:49:39,600 --> 00:49:41,520
Speaker 1: with nobody in them, and go, oh, yeah, I remember

971
00:49:41,600 --> 00:49:44,920
Speaker 1: that explosion. That was really cool. M Well that's because

972
00:49:44,960 --> 00:49:49,400
Speaker 1: your firework scrub, Daniel. Nobody would explain you to you

973
00:49:49,480 --> 00:49:53,200
Speaker 1: watch something it's something you don't like. Fac More people

974
00:49:53,239 --> 00:49:55,839
Speaker 1: would probably say oh to that video than to your

975
00:49:55,880 --> 00:49:58,600
Speaker 1: kids eating pizza. Honestly, if I invited people over there,

976
00:49:58,680 --> 00:50:01,399
Speaker 1: probably rather see a fireworks video than an old video

977
00:50:01,400 --> 00:50:03,879
Speaker 1: of my kids eating pizza. Especially your kids didn't want

978
00:50:03,880 --> 00:50:06,799
Speaker 1: to see that stuff. All right, Well, that was an

979
00:50:06,840 --> 00:50:10,799
Speaker 1: explosive conversation, full of sparkling conversation. Yeah, and we hope

980
00:50:10,840 --> 00:50:14,040
Speaker 1: that illuminated for you how people have been using physics

981
00:50:14,080 --> 00:50:17,160
Speaker 1: and chemistry to brighten up their lives and their celebrations

982
00:50:17,280 --> 00:50:19,640
Speaker 1: even before they understood how it worked. And I hope

983
00:50:19,640 --> 00:50:22,680
Speaker 1: that confluence of physics and chemistry I really add a

984
00:50:22,680 --> 00:50:25,160
Speaker 1: little pop to your day there for night. And I

985
00:50:25,200 --> 00:50:28,400
Speaker 1: hope my distaste for fireworks it doesn't blow up your experience.

986
00:50:28,640 --> 00:50:31,840
Speaker 1: What's not to like, Daniel? They're big, they're explosive, and

987
00:50:31,880 --> 00:50:36,279
Speaker 1: they're bright, sort of like the universe, right, the big smash?

988
00:50:36,400 --> 00:50:40,040
Speaker 1: All right, I give up, you win? Yes? All right? Well,

989
00:50:40,080 --> 00:50:42,120
Speaker 1: we hope you enjoyed that. Thanks for joining us, and

990
00:50:42,400 --> 00:50:44,000
Speaker 1: we hope the next time you look up at the

991
00:50:44,040 --> 00:50:46,160
Speaker 1: fireworks display, you kind of think about all of the

992
00:50:46,239 --> 00:50:49,200
Speaker 1: physics and chemistry arts that's going on than all the

993
00:50:49,400 --> 00:50:52,400
Speaker 1: artisanal skill that went into making those fireworks. And have

994
00:50:52,440 --> 00:50:55,920
Speaker 1: a happy summer fireworks season everybody, and stay safe. Take

995
00:50:55,960 --> 00:50:59,480
Speaker 1: a video and send it to Daniel Ramp to enjoy it.

996
00:50:59,560 --> 00:51:01,319
Speaker 1: I'll d them all together and put them on my

997
00:51:01,360 --> 00:51:05,239
Speaker 1: website for somebody to download and watch. Twelve hours of fireworks.

998
00:51:05,520 --> 00:51:08,920
Speaker 1: That does sound pretty good. I think it's called the screensaver.

999
00:51:09,239 --> 00:51:12,120
Speaker 1: Maybe I think they invented that already. Anyways, thanks for

1000
00:51:12,200 --> 00:51:22,440
Speaker 1: joining us, see you next time. Thanks for listening, and

1001
00:51:22,480 --> 00:51:25,239
Speaker 1: remember that Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe is a

1002
00:51:25,239 --> 00:51:28,680
Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio. For more podcast for my

1003
00:51:28,800 --> 00:51:32,400
Speaker 1: Heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

1004
00:51:32,520 --> 00:51:40,480
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Ye