WEBVTT - How Disney's Happily Ever After Works 0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:07.480 Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from stuff 0:00:07.520 --> 0:00:14.200 works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:17.280 I am your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer 0:00:17.320 --> 0:00:22.000 at Cal's stuff Works, and I am a Disney fanatic. 0:00:22.840 --> 0:00:24.680 People who have listened to this show for a long 0:00:24.720 --> 0:00:29.080 time are already aware of that fact. I love Disney, 0:00:29.200 --> 0:00:31.720 I love the Disney movies, I love the Disney Parks. 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:35.000 I've done episodes about different aspects of the Disney parks, 0:00:35.520 --> 0:00:41.400 and earlier in ten I had planned on going to 0:00:41.560 --> 0:00:46.360 Disney World and uh in twenty seventeen, Disney World over 0:00:46.400 --> 0:00:50.640 at the Magic Kingdom started a brand new fireworks display 0:00:50.720 --> 0:00:54.240 called Happily ever After. And after I heard about it 0:00:54.320 --> 0:00:56.800 and heard what was going to be part of Happily 0:00:56.800 --> 0:00:59.360 ever After, which would include three D projection mapping, I'll 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:02.800 talk about that this episode. I realized that this was 0:01:02.840 --> 0:01:05.600 a really cool idea. I could use that as a 0:01:05.680 --> 0:01:08.959 specific example and take the opportunity to talk about the 0:01:09.000 --> 0:01:13.120 technologies that make that show possible. So, in the interest 0:01:13.160 --> 0:01:14.880 of full disclosure, I want to let you guys know 0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:17.560 I reached out to Disney and told them what I 0:01:17.560 --> 0:01:20.160 wanted to do and asked if they might be able 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:23.880 to set up an interview with one of their imagineers 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:29.440 who was responsible for working on this this project. So 0:01:30.520 --> 0:01:33.440 I did that and I heard back from Disney. They 0:01:33.480 --> 0:01:37.679 were very, very gracious. They informed me that they did 0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:40.760 not have any opportunities for any interviews during the time 0:01:40.800 --> 0:01:42.800 when I was going to be at Disney anyway. I 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:45.520 told them this, you know, the span of the week 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:50.000 where I would actually be at the park. However, they 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:54.680 did give me a one day park hopper pass so 0:01:54.720 --> 0:01:58.760 that I could go I which I used. So I 0:01:58.800 --> 0:02:02.000 just wanted to make that full disclosure because while there 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:07.160 was no agreement about doing a show or having access 0:02:07.200 --> 0:02:09.680 to anything, it was literally they said, thank you for 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:11.880 your interest. Here's a day at the park. I just 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:13.600 want to let you guys know that that had happened, 0:02:13.960 --> 0:02:15.560 because you know, I want to be on the up 0:02:15.600 --> 0:02:18.119 and up. But I had planned on doing the show anyway. 0:02:18.400 --> 0:02:24.079 So yeah, alright, So what that's what is happily ever After? Well, 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:29.320 it is the successor of a show that was called Wishes. Uh. 0:02:29.440 --> 0:02:32.760 This is the big nighttime show at the Magic Kingdom. 0:02:33.200 --> 0:02:38.520 Wishes was primarily a pyrotechnics show, a fireworks display and 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:41.880 I was kind of sad to see Wishes go. Wishes 0:02:41.880 --> 0:02:45.240 had been around for I think thirteen years at the 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:49.600 Magic Kingdom Park and then uh they decided to swap 0:02:49.639 --> 0:02:54.760 it out. I had a personal connection to Wishes because 0:02:55.040 --> 0:02:59.320 Wishes was hosted and I use air quotes for hosted 0:02:59.480 --> 0:03:02.160 by jim NYE. Cricket. The voice of Jiminy Cricket was 0:03:02.360 --> 0:03:08.240 one of the narrators for the show Wishes. And I 0:03:08.240 --> 0:03:11.440 don't want to ruin the magic for anybody, but Jiminy 0:03:11.520 --> 0:03:15.480 Cricket used to be voiced by an actor named Eddie Carroll, 0:03:15.840 --> 0:03:18.440 and Eddie Carroll was a friend of the family. He 0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:22.040 passed away a few years ago, but Eddie Carroll's a 0:03:22.040 --> 0:03:25.360 friend of the Strickland family, and so it was kind 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:27.440 of sad to see that show go because that was 0:03:27.480 --> 0:03:31.079 another connection to someone I had known and had had 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:34.239 hung out with. Very nice man. Uh So I was 0:03:34.280 --> 0:03:36.200 sad to see that go, but I was also excited 0:03:36.240 --> 0:03:40.800 because I I don't think anything at Disney should be 0:03:41.240 --> 0:03:46.280 considered as a as a forever and ever permanent kind 0:03:46.320 --> 0:03:50.400 of installment, because then you don't ever have the opportunity 0:03:50.640 --> 0:03:54.560 to experiment and innovate. And I think that Walt Disney 0:03:54.680 --> 0:03:59.320 was very much concerned with the concept of innovation, so 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:03.920 I am glad that they had the chance to make 0:04:03.960 --> 0:04:08.120 this new show. Fireworks in Disney date back a long way. 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:11.320 The first fireworks display at a Disney park was at 0:04:11.320 --> 0:04:14.360 Disneyland in nineteen fifty eight. It was called Fantasy in 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:18.359 the Sky. As I said, Wishes was the most recent 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:22.320 fireworks display over at the Magic Kingdom until earlier in 0:04:22.760 --> 0:04:25.640 sev It was kind of cool. It had five hundred 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:30.120 fifty seven firing queues that meant at five fifty seven 0:04:30.160 --> 0:04:32.440 different points during the show they would fire off at 0:04:32.520 --> 0:04:38.240 least one, if not multiple fireworks. H and so it 0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:40.440 was neat to see that show. I hope you had 0:04:40.440 --> 0:04:41.720 a chance to see it. If you've ever been to 0:04:41.720 --> 0:04:43.080 the Magic Kingdom, I hope you had a chance to 0:04:43.080 --> 0:04:45.160 see Wishes. It was pretty good, but happily ever after. 0:04:46.120 --> 0:04:49.359 Has a lot of new technologies involved in it, not 0:04:49.440 --> 0:04:52.480 just fireworks, not just spotlights, not just lasers, but also 0:04:52.600 --> 0:04:54.800 three D projection mapping, which has been used a couple 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:58.440 of times in Disney's past, including a notable one. The 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:02.440 first noted use of three D projection mapping was at 0:05:02.440 --> 0:05:07.400 a Disney Park, but this was the first truly major 0:05:07.680 --> 0:05:11.039 use of it in a big Disney show that was 0:05:11.080 --> 0:05:16.080 meant to be a kind of a nightly performance. And 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:19.640 there's a lot of different breakdowns online you can find 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:24.040 for the show that kind of explain the flow of it. 0:05:24.480 --> 0:05:26.960 One of them is on w d W Magic. It's 0:05:27.000 --> 0:05:30.240 called Deconstructing Happily. Ever, after it breaks it down like this, 0:05:30.360 --> 0:05:33.400 it says that there are seven sections to the show, 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:37.279 and the first one is called Desiring the Dream. This 0:05:37.360 --> 0:05:41.240 is their terminology. It's not necessarily the internal one, but 0:05:41.320 --> 0:05:43.760 Desiring the Dream, which sets the scene and features the 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:46.880 first instances of projection mapping. I'll explain what that means 0:05:47.040 --> 0:05:49.719 a little bit later in this episode. The second section 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:54.680 is called Boldly Beginning the Journey, and that one has 0:05:54.720 --> 0:05:58.320 some various laser effects along with projection mapping and some fireworks. 0:05:58.760 --> 0:06:02.440 Then you have friends on the Journey. Section four is 0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:07.440 Love is the Journey. Section five is Overcoming Adversity, which 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:10.720 includes both projected and real fireworks, which is kind of cool. 0:06:10.800 --> 0:06:16.120 They'll have a projected firework on the castle itself and 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:19.480 then it will transition to a real firework in actual space, 0:06:19.600 --> 0:06:23.440 so you watch as a pretend firework is fired off 0:06:23.920 --> 0:06:25.960 on the scene of the castle and a real one 0:06:26.000 --> 0:06:28.760 takes off right at the same point, so that you 0:06:28.839 --> 0:06:31.440 can then have that perfect transition. It's a really neat effect. 0:06:32.240 --> 0:06:34.880 Section six is the Heroes Happily ever After, and the 0:06:34.920 --> 0:06:38.279 final section is find your Own Happily ever After. Meanwhile, 0:06:38.279 --> 0:06:41.200 the Disney Wiki has a slightly different naming system for 0:06:41.320 --> 0:06:45.240 these that goes with Happily ever After, wish Adventure, Friendship, 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:49.440 Love Adversity, Heroes fight Back, Peace Restored, and Happily ever 0:06:49.480 --> 0:06:54.080 After referees. Each section has various effects, characters, music, and 0:06:54.200 --> 0:06:58.160 dialogue associated with it. So let's talk about how how 0:06:58.200 --> 0:07:00.800 all this works. I mean, it's when you experience it 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:05.080 as a show. You're hearing music, you're hearing dialogue, You're 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:10.239 seeing the imagery projected directly onto the castle, Cinderella's castle 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:13.000 at the Magic Kingdom. You're seeing the fireworks, you're seeing 0:07:13.000 --> 0:07:16.040 the spotlights, you're seeing the lasers. How do you coordinate 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:18.360 all of that? The answer, by the way, spoiler alert, 0:07:18.440 --> 0:07:22.480 is computers. Yeah, that's pretty much what you have to use. 0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:26.200 But obviously there's a lot of different individual components here. 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:30.240 So let's start with fireworks. So we actually did a 0:07:30.440 --> 0:07:34.440 pair of episodes about fireworks, uh a few years back 0:07:34.440 --> 0:07:37.640 back in tween. This would be when Lauren vogeo Baum 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:40.320 was my co host, and Lauren and I did these 0:07:40.320 --> 0:07:44.760 two episodes about fireworks. They are titled tech Stuff Lights 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:49.600 Some Fireworks. That one published on July twenty fourteen, and 0:07:49.640 --> 0:07:52.840 the second part was called Fireworks Part two because apparently 0:07:52.880 --> 0:07:55.960 we ran out of creative ways of naming episodes. That 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:59.560 one published on jen But I'm gonna go over some 0:07:59.600 --> 0:08:03.520 of the salient facts so that we understand what's happening, 0:08:04.040 --> 0:08:07.160 because I don't need to go in as much detailed 0:08:07.200 --> 0:08:09.480 since we already have episodes. But it's been a few years, 0:08:09.600 --> 0:08:12.600 so let's catch everybody up. First of all, what is 0:08:12.600 --> 0:08:16.080 a firework? Well, it's an explosive or combustible device designed 0:08:16.080 --> 0:08:19.880 to create an impressive light display and or loud noise. 0:08:20.320 --> 0:08:23.440 These days, the most common basic ingredient and fireworks is 0:08:23.440 --> 0:08:27.920 called black powder, which is similar to gunpowder. It's made 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:32.600 from sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate, also known as saltpeter. 0:08:33.200 --> 0:08:37.440 So those are your three basic ingredients for gunpowder. If 0:08:37.440 --> 0:08:42.640 you remember from The Wonderful musical seventy. That's what Adams 0:08:42.720 --> 0:08:45.679 was asking of his wife Abigail to send them saltpeter 0:08:46.240 --> 0:08:49.560 because they needed it for their guns. Legend states that 0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:52.920 fireworks were created by accident when a chef in China 0:08:53.080 --> 0:08:57.280 was mixing together sulfur, saltpeter, and charcoal in a kitchen 0:08:57.600 --> 0:08:59.880 and discovered that if you compressed it and then lit 0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:03.400 it on fire, it would ignite with explosive force. There's 0:09:03.440 --> 0:09:07.319 no word whether the chefs survived this discovery, or if 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:10.720 perhaps noodles found their way to the moon. No one 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:14.880 really knows, and in fact, this is probably an apocryphal story, 0:09:14.920 --> 0:09:19.120 but it is a popular one. Another potentially apocryphal story 0:09:19.120 --> 0:09:22.600 traces the origin of fireworks back to a specific monk 0:09:23.200 --> 0:09:26.920 named Le Sian who lived in China about one thousand 0:09:27.000 --> 0:09:30.360 years ago. But there's so many different sources that use 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:35.000 the exact same phrasing to describe the story that to me, 0:09:35.120 --> 0:09:38.360 it sounds like they're all working from a a single 0:09:38.440 --> 0:09:42.400 primary source, or they're perpetuating a whole lot of copying 0:09:42.440 --> 0:09:45.920 and pasting. At any rate, it sounds like there's a 0:09:45.920 --> 0:09:49.640 lot of plagiarism is a strong word, let's just say 0:09:49.760 --> 0:09:53.960 very creative writing going on here, and I can't find 0:09:54.000 --> 0:09:57.720 anything that actually confirms or denies that legend. It may 0:09:58.000 --> 0:10:00.680 very well have an element of truth to it, or 0:10:00.720 --> 0:10:03.880 it could be completely baseless, and it's just one of 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:09.200 those things that's been passed around by multiple people. Scholarly sources, however, 0:10:09.520 --> 0:10:12.920 point to the development of gunpowder originating sometime around the 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:17.400 eleventh century Common Era in China. Other people worked on 0:10:17.440 --> 0:10:20.920 it as well over the following centuries. Roger Bacon discovered 0:10:20.920 --> 0:10:24.560 in the thirteenth century that black powder burned with a 0:10:24.640 --> 0:10:26.920 quick flash if you lit it. So if you just 0:10:27.000 --> 0:10:29.040 had black powder loose and you lit it, it would 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:33.360 go flash and just be gone. But if you were 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:36.400 to compress it by packing it into a container and 0:10:36.440 --> 0:10:40.840 then you lit it, it would explode and go boom. 0:10:40.880 --> 0:10:46.000 And that's because you have the basic needs for fire 0:10:46.600 --> 0:10:50.880 in very high concentration in a small area. Uh. That 0:10:50.920 --> 0:10:53.200 means that means you've got fuel. Fuel in this case 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:56.040 is the in the form of charcoal and sulfur, and 0:10:56.120 --> 0:10:59.920 you have oxidizer that would be the potassium nitrate. Oxidizer 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:02.760 are the thing that allows fuel to burn. The one 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:06.920 we're really familiar with is oxygen, thus the name you 0:11:06.960 --> 0:11:11.800 may remember the triangle that's required to have fire. You 0:11:11.840 --> 0:11:16.520 need fuel, heat, and oxygen. Technically, you don't really need oxygen. 0:11:16.600 --> 0:11:19.760 You need an oxidizer. Oxygen just happens to be one 0:11:19.880 --> 0:11:24.080 of the oxidizers. It's the most plentiful one around us 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:27.280 on normal day to day basis. Pretty much when it's 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:29.760 not around us, we tend to not enjoy ourselves so much, 0:11:29.960 --> 0:11:33.400 so we're really familiar with that one. Modern fireworks tend 0:11:33.400 --> 0:11:36.280 to use other stuff as oxidizers. Uh Like you know, 0:11:36.320 --> 0:11:39.000 potassium nitrate was very popular for a while, but it's 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:42.080 not used as much these days. It's not as environmentally 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:46.319 friendly as some other oxidizers. It creates byproducts that could 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:51.960 potentially be harmful to say, surrounding wildlife or people, So 0:11:52.320 --> 0:11:56.079 potassium nitrate is not used as frequently in modern fireworks. 0:11:56.559 --> 0:12:00.160 We're seeing more stuff like sodium and potassium pair your 0:12:00.240 --> 0:12:04.160 date being used instead or pariah date, I guess is 0:12:04.200 --> 0:12:06.600 the best way of saying it. Pariah date, not perio date. 0:12:07.040 --> 0:12:09.240 Don't write to me, I know and messed it up. 0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:13.679 The colors created from fireworks are dependent upon the materials 0:12:13.720 --> 0:12:17.520 that you place inside those fireworks. Because different stuff burns 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:21.080 with different color flames. We've learned this over centuries where 0:12:21.120 --> 0:12:24.480 people have worked with various materials, they've caught on fire 0:12:24.679 --> 0:12:27.240 and we've looked at the flames and said, oh, that's pretty. 0:12:27.880 --> 0:12:31.199 So if you want to have different effects with your fireworks, 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:34.400 you would add different types of metallic salts, that kind 0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:37.599 of thing to your mixture in order to create the 0:12:38.200 --> 0:12:41.720 sparking effect that you want. So here's a quick guide 0:12:42.000 --> 0:12:46.199 to some of your basic colors. If you wanted red fireworks, 0:12:46.880 --> 0:12:51.079 you would generate that by burning strontium salts, lithium salts, 0:12:51.280 --> 0:12:55.160 lithium carbonate, strontium carbonate, which would give you a very 0:12:55.240 --> 0:12:58.800 bright red. Strontium carbonate would So those are your reds. 0:12:59.240 --> 0:13:01.520 If you wanted to create orange, you would use calcium 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:05.480 salts or calcium chloride. If you wanted yellow, you'd use 0:13:05.520 --> 0:13:09.880 sodium salts like sodium chloride. If you wanted green, you 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:13.280 would go with barium compounds and a chlorine producer, so 0:13:13.400 --> 0:13:16.760 barium chloride. If you want blue, you would go with 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:21.040 copper compounds and a chlorine producer, so copper chloride. You 0:13:21.080 --> 0:13:23.320 want purple, then you would want to mix blue and 0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:27.319 red together. It's kind of like grade school. And that 0:13:27.360 --> 0:13:30.720 meant that you would mix together strawntium and copper. Typically, 0:13:31.240 --> 0:13:34.440 if you wanted silver effects, you would use something like aluminum, 0:13:34.520 --> 0:13:39.920 titanium or magnesium in there to get the explosive patterns. 0:13:39.920 --> 0:13:41.679 Because that all that does is just give you color. 0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:45.720 It doesn't automatically make the fireworks spread out in a 0:13:45.720 --> 0:13:48.840 particular shape. If you want a specific shape, you would 0:13:48.880 --> 0:13:53.160 have to pour them these metallic salts into lumps made 0:13:53.160 --> 0:13:57.360 of clay or a kind of Doughey material. These would 0:13:57.840 --> 0:14:03.079 end up being pocket of that material, and they're about 0:14:03.080 --> 0:14:06.080 three or four centimeters across, and in the industry they 0:14:06.120 --> 0:14:09.199 refer to these things as stars. So each one's three 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:12.600 or four centimeters across. You might have a whole bunch 0:14:13.080 --> 0:14:16.360 in a single firework, but each one of these would 0:14:16.360 --> 0:14:20.360 represent a blast of color like one of those big 0:14:20.360 --> 0:14:23.240 sparks you see in fireworks. So you're talking about lots 0:14:23.240 --> 0:14:26.920 and lots of them in the really big ones. And uh, 0:14:27.400 --> 0:14:32.400 the way you place them inside the firework determines where 0:14:32.400 --> 0:14:34.960 they're going to go, just based upon where the blast 0:14:35.120 --> 0:14:38.720 is right, You've got a essentially a black powder core 0:14:39.160 --> 0:14:43.280 that's going to force everything into different directions, and you 0:14:43.440 --> 0:14:47.240 place the stars around the core in the particular uh, 0:14:47.840 --> 0:14:51.480 the particular arrangement you want in order to create the 0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:54.880 effect you're going for. It's pretty cool that you can 0:14:54.920 --> 0:14:58.560 do this, you know, manually, if you wanted to. In fact, 0:14:58.600 --> 0:15:01.240 there are a lot of places that still do this 0:15:01.320 --> 0:15:05.640 manually because frankly, you're you're working with stuff that's pretty dangerous, 0:15:05.720 --> 0:15:07.640 so you want to be really careful with it. You can't, 0:15:07.800 --> 0:15:10.880 you know, you can't treat black powder casually or you're 0:15:10.920 --> 0:15:14.680 gonna have an explosion on your hands. Now, typical firework 0:15:14.760 --> 0:15:17.720 rocket will have several stars packed into it, and like 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:19.640 I said, they had to be placed meticulously in the 0:15:19.720 --> 0:15:22.240 rocket to get that desired effect. And then they use 0:15:22.280 --> 0:15:25.840 a time delay fuse that would lead to the burst 0:15:25.960 --> 0:15:28.840 chamber of black powder, which the stars are centered around. 0:15:29.200 --> 0:15:31.560 So you typically have two different kinds of fuses in 0:15:31.600 --> 0:15:34.040 your firework. You have a quick burning fuse that will 0:15:34.080 --> 0:15:38.760 go to the uh the launch blast of black powder. 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:42.080 You can think of a firework is having two chambers, 0:15:42.320 --> 0:15:46.000 the first one being the launch chamber. That's what's going 0:15:46.040 --> 0:15:49.160 to provide the force necessary to propel the firework into 0:15:49.200 --> 0:15:51.600 the air. Disney is a little different, but we'll talk 0:15:51.600 --> 0:15:54.320 about that in a second. So your typical firework, you 0:15:54.360 --> 0:15:57.960 would have that first black powder bunch that shoots the 0:15:58.000 --> 0:16:02.920 firework into the air. The fuse would then lead to 0:16:03.040 --> 0:16:06.600 a more slow burning fuse, And by slow we're talking 0:16:06.640 --> 0:16:09.680 about degrees here. It's not like it's super slow, but 0:16:10.480 --> 0:16:14.240 it would burn slower so that the secondary charge, the 0:16:14.360 --> 0:16:19.520 burst charge, will explode at a precise timing, typically when 0:16:19.520 --> 0:16:21.800 you want to get to the the top of the 0:16:22.000 --> 0:16:25.960 arc of the fireworks flight. So you time this out 0:16:26.040 --> 0:16:28.920 by measuring out how much black powder you're using. This 0:16:29.000 --> 0:16:31.720 is all based upon also the weight of the firework. 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:33.280 When it's all finished, like, you have to do a 0:16:33.280 --> 0:16:35.480 lot of math. You have to figure out how heavy 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:38.680 is the firework, how much force is the blast powder 0:16:38.680 --> 0:16:42.280 going to create when it's doing this lift, how fast 0:16:42.320 --> 0:16:45.000 will it get to the top of its flight path, 0:16:45.760 --> 0:16:48.320 and how long does the slow burning fuse have to 0:16:48.320 --> 0:16:53.440 be in order for the burst black powder to ignite 0:16:53.440 --> 0:16:56.920 at the proper time to ignite all those stars and 0:16:57.000 --> 0:16:59.280 send them out in the various directions. There's a lot 0:16:59.320 --> 0:17:02.640 of math involved often that that's just for one firework. Also, 0:17:02.680 --> 0:17:05.360 you've got to remember, based upon the way you design 0:17:05.520 --> 0:17:08.840 the firework, you're gonna get very different effects. Obviously, if 0:17:08.840 --> 0:17:12.080 you've seen any fireworks displays, you've probably seen somewhere it's 0:17:12.119 --> 0:17:15.119 just a very bright star flying through the sky, or 0:17:15.160 --> 0:17:18.239 another one where it's a really cool kind of uh 0:17:18.800 --> 0:17:22.560 cascade effect. All of these are based upon the way 0:17:22.600 --> 0:17:26.040 that you've actually packed the powder and the stars together, 0:17:26.840 --> 0:17:30.480 so really precise. And it's fascinating to me that we 0:17:30.560 --> 0:17:32.879 ever figured this stuff out because I look at it 0:17:32.920 --> 0:17:35.960 and I think it's so pretty how much trial and 0:17:36.160 --> 0:17:39.720 error was necessary to understand exactly how to do this correctly? 0:17:40.240 --> 0:17:42.000 Would I have had the patients to do it, or 0:17:42.040 --> 0:17:44.880 would I be known as Johnny the three fingered idiot 0:17:46.200 --> 0:17:49.360 who probably worked a little too closely with black powder. 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:50.840 I think we all know the answer to that, so 0:17:50.880 --> 0:17:52.520 you don't need to write me and tell me. I 0:17:52.640 --> 0:17:55.679 know what the answer is. So let's just be thankful 0:17:55.720 --> 0:17:57.560 that people who are smarter than I am were the 0:17:57.560 --> 0:18:02.959 ones who developed fireworks. Now, more advanced fireworks may have 0:18:03.040 --> 0:18:05.760 multiple burst chambers, so not just the one, they might 0:18:05.800 --> 0:18:09.840 have multiple ones so that you get extra effects from 0:18:09.880 --> 0:18:12.560 the same firework. You don't have to fire multiple ones 0:18:12.560 --> 0:18:16.400 to get it, and you might have different break charges 0:18:16.480 --> 0:18:20.280 in between these different chambers, so that you can have 0:18:20.520 --> 0:18:23.640 them ignite at different points of the flight, and therefore 0:18:23.760 --> 0:18:28.600 you get very different effects as a result. The shape 0:18:28.640 --> 0:18:31.040 of the firework bursts is determined by the arrangement of 0:18:31.080 --> 0:18:33.560 the stars inside the projectile and whether or not it 0:18:33.680 --> 0:18:36.600 is a multi break firework. The shape of the shells 0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:39.600 also determines the shape of the explosion, and here is 0:18:39.640 --> 0:18:43.880 a collection of your basic types of fireworks. Shells. You've 0:18:43.920 --> 0:18:48.040 got palm which contains large comets or charges in the 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:51.760 shape of a solid cylinder that travel outward, explode and 0:18:51.800 --> 0:18:54.240 then curved downward like the limbs of a palm tree. 0:18:55.160 --> 0:18:58.800 You have round shells. These explode and spherical shape, usually 0:18:58.880 --> 0:19:02.680 of colored stars, so very typical firework that you would see. 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:06.320 A ring shell explodes to produce a symmetrical ring of stars. 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:11.920 Another very typical firework willow. This contains stars. High charcoal 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:15.840 composition makes them burn longer that fall into the shape 0:19:15.840 --> 0:19:18.639 of willow branches and may even stay visible until they 0:19:18.720 --> 0:19:21.119 hit the ground. So this is that cascading effect I 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:24.520 was talking about a second ago. Round dell shells. These 0:19:24.560 --> 0:19:28.520 burst into a circle of maroon shells that explode in sequence. 0:19:29.160 --> 0:19:33.600 Chrysanthemum shells. These burst into a spherical pattern of stars 0:19:33.640 --> 0:19:36.800 that leave a visible trail with an effect somewhat suggestive 0:19:37.000 --> 0:19:41.240 of the flower pistol shells like a chrysanthemum shell, but 0:19:41.359 --> 0:19:43.679 has a core that is a different color from the 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:47.240 outer stars. So you get a contrast maroon shell which 0:19:47.359 --> 0:19:52.439 makes allowed bang and serpentine bursts to send small tubes 0:19:52.480 --> 0:19:56.200 of incendiaries skittering outward in random paths, which may culminate 0:19:56.200 --> 0:20:02.000 in exploding stars. Obviously, these are all basic types of fireworks. 0:20:02.080 --> 0:20:04.880 There are others, and there are combinations of these as well. 0:20:05.560 --> 0:20:07.680 Like I said, fireworks have the two chambers, you've got 0:20:07.680 --> 0:20:10.560 the different fuses that will allow those different chambers to 0:20:10.600 --> 0:20:13.280 ignite at different points of the flight. To me, it's 0:20:13.280 --> 0:20:16.080 a very low tech but elegant solution to making an 0:20:16.080 --> 0:20:18.199 explosion happen exactly when you want it to and to 0:20:18.320 --> 0:20:21.320 get the effect that you're hoping for. And typically you 0:20:21.320 --> 0:20:25.399 would launch fireworks, these big ones anyway, from mortars and 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:29.080 a mortar firework mortar typically it's just a tube that 0:20:29.160 --> 0:20:32.919 has one end sealed off, so the base of the 0:20:32.960 --> 0:20:35.639 firework goes down against the bottom of the tube, you 0:20:35.760 --> 0:20:38.440 light it, use the tube to aim the firework at 0:20:38.440 --> 0:20:41.600 the right angle, flies out the end, and shoots off 0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:44.439 preferably exactly where you want it to, and then it 0:20:44.480 --> 0:20:50.080 blows up. Pretty simple design. Some mortars have sparkers at 0:20:50.080 --> 0:20:52.679 the base of them, and those are hooked up to 0:20:52.760 --> 0:20:56.000 a control board which could also be hooked up to 0:20:56.040 --> 0:20:59.399 a computer program, so the computer program can send a 0:20:59.440 --> 0:21:02.919 command that will send a electric current down the wire, 0:21:03.320 --> 0:21:07.000 sparking the sparker, which then ignites the fuse for the 0:21:07.040 --> 0:21:09.760 firework and fires it off. If you have a computer 0:21:09.800 --> 0:21:12.960 program that has everything coordinated in it, then you just 0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:15.800 run the program. As long as all the fireworks are 0:21:15.800 --> 0:21:18.439 set up ahead of time, then it should work pretty 0:21:18.480 --> 0:21:21.160 well and you will have your fireworks going off at 0:21:21.200 --> 0:21:24.399 the appropriate time. If you wanted to actually time this 0:21:24.440 --> 0:21:27.040 out properly, then you kind of have to work backwards. 0:21:27.119 --> 0:21:29.639 You have to figure out what point in the show 0:21:29.920 --> 0:21:32.240 you want something to happen, and you mark down the 0:21:32.280 --> 0:21:35.639 time stamp. So you start the show, you have a 0:21:35.680 --> 0:21:37.520 moment in the show and you say this is when 0:21:37.560 --> 0:21:40.320 I want the firework to go off. You mark the 0:21:40.320 --> 0:21:44.640 time stamp down and you start working backwards. So you 0:21:44.680 --> 0:21:47.760 take the firework that you're planning on firing and you say, 0:21:47.800 --> 0:21:50.000 all right, well I need it to explode at this point, 0:21:50.040 --> 0:21:52.920 So that's the explosion point. How long does it take 0:21:53.200 --> 0:21:56.879 for the quick fuse to burn to the or the 0:21:56.880 --> 0:22:00.640 slow fuse to burn to the burst chamber? How long 0:22:00.680 --> 0:22:03.639 does that take? Based upon that, we know know how 0:22:04.080 --> 0:22:06.439 long back how far back we need to go for 0:22:06.480 --> 0:22:09.119 the birst chamber to light Based on that, you can say, 0:22:09.160 --> 0:22:11.520 all right, well, how far does the lift chamber need 0:22:11.600 --> 0:22:14.560 to uh? When does that need to light up in 0:22:14.720 --> 0:22:16.600 order for the burst chamber to be in the right 0:22:16.600 --> 0:22:19.520 position at the right time. So you just keep working backward, 0:22:19.840 --> 0:22:22.040 and as you do that, you start to finally get 0:22:22.080 --> 0:22:23.840 to the point where you say, this is the moment 0:22:23.880 --> 0:22:25.960 in the show where I have to launch so that 0:22:26.040 --> 0:22:29.040 at this later moment I get the effect I want. 0:22:29.640 --> 0:22:31.679 And as long as you're being very consistent with the 0:22:31.680 --> 0:22:34.640 way you're producing your fireworks, you should get the same 0:22:34.680 --> 0:22:38.360 effect more or less every show. There might be small 0:22:39.320 --> 0:22:42.520 changes based on weather and some other things that are 0:22:42.600 --> 0:22:45.200 kind of outside your control. There're gonna be some small 0:22:45.280 --> 0:22:48.879 change differences in quality, for example, with fireworks. But for 0:22:48.920 --> 0:22:51.600 the most part, you're gonna be pretty consistent because physics 0:22:51.720 --> 0:22:54.560 is like that. If physics were not like that, we 0:22:54.560 --> 0:22:58.679 wouldn't have physics, because you have to have the world 0:22:58.720 --> 0:23:00.880 makes sense in order for us to be able to 0:23:00.920 --> 0:23:04.320 talk about rules. If the world didn't make sense, then 0:23:04.800 --> 0:23:10.880 fireworks would be even more dangerous than they already are. Disney, 0:23:10.880 --> 0:23:14.120 as I mentioned, it is slightly different from this typical 0:23:14.200 --> 0:23:17.960 mortar approach. They don't they don't use mortars with sparkers. 0:23:17.960 --> 0:23:21.200 They typically use mortars that have air compressor guns in them, 0:23:21.240 --> 0:23:24.679 so they can actually use compressed air to fire a 0:23:24.720 --> 0:23:27.919 firework into the sky. Now, what that means is that 0:23:27.960 --> 0:23:32.400 their fireworks don't require this lift chamber of black powder 0:23:33.040 --> 0:23:37.600 because the lift is created from the burst of compressed 0:23:37.640 --> 0:23:40.880 air behind the firework, So they can actually cut down 0:23:40.880 --> 0:23:42.760