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