1 00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:07,160 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff, 2 00:00:07,200 --> 00:00:10,360 Speaker 1: Lord volcabam here with another classic episode from our erstwell host, 3 00:00:10,440 --> 00:00:14,480 Speaker 1: Christian Sagar. This one concerns a classic candy question. What 4 00:00:14,640 --> 00:00:22,960 Speaker 1: are pop rocks and are they actually dangerous? Hey? I'm 5 00:00:23,040 --> 00:00:26,479 Speaker 1: Christian Sagar and this is brain Stuff. There's lots of 6 00:00:26,600 --> 00:00:31,160 Speaker 1: urban legends about pop rocks candy like they supposedly explode 7 00:00:31,240 --> 00:00:33,440 Speaker 1: if you eat them with soda, and the kid who 8 00:00:33,520 --> 00:00:37,440 Speaker 1: played Mikey in those nine eighties Life Cereal commercials died 9 00:00:37,560 --> 00:00:40,720 Speaker 1: from combining the two. Have you ever heard those? Neither 10 00:00:40,760 --> 00:00:43,680 Speaker 1: of them are true. But here's one that was actually 11 00:00:43,720 --> 00:00:47,680 Speaker 1: reported in a nineteen seventy nine issue of Newsweek. A 12 00:00:47,800 --> 00:00:51,680 Speaker 1: shipment of pop rocks overheated in a delivery truck and 13 00:00:51,840 --> 00:00:56,360 Speaker 1: blew its doors open. If that's true, how did it happen? 14 00:00:56,640 --> 00:01:00,400 Speaker 1: And for that matter, how do pop rocks work? Anyway? 15 00:01:00,720 --> 00:01:02,520 Speaker 1: We know they are a candy that you put in 16 00:01:02,520 --> 00:01:06,559 Speaker 1: your mouth, triggering carbonation, a tiny burst, and a popping sound. 17 00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:10,440 Speaker 1: They were invented in nineteen fifty six by William A. 18 00:01:10,640 --> 00:01:14,000 Speaker 1: Mitchell when he was trying to create instant soda crystals 19 00:01:14,040 --> 00:01:17,440 Speaker 1: that melted in water. Mitchell was working for General Foods 20 00:01:17,440 --> 00:01:19,960 Speaker 1: at the time, but before that he worked in an 21 00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:24,959 Speaker 1: agricultural experiment station in Lincoln, Nebraska, where get this, he 22 00:01:25,160 --> 00:01:27,760 Speaker 1: blew his lab up and it left him with burns 23 00:01:27,800 --> 00:01:31,080 Speaker 1: all over most of his body. Yeah, it's true. Even 24 00:01:31,160 --> 00:01:35,880 Speaker 1: after that disaster, Mitchell still formulated a candy with potentially 25 00:01:36,319 --> 00:01:40,480 Speaker 1: volatile properties. Here's his basic recipe as it was refined 26 00:01:40,520 --> 00:01:43,520 Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty. All hard candies are made from a 27 00:01:43,520 --> 00:01:48,400 Speaker 1: combination of sugar, corn syrup, water, and flavoring. With pop Rocks, 28 00:01:48,520 --> 00:01:51,920 Speaker 1: you heat these ingredients to dissolve the sugars and additives. 29 00:01:52,240 --> 00:01:55,080 Speaker 1: Then you boil the mixture, evaporating most of the water 30 00:01:55,200 --> 00:01:59,840 Speaker 1: at atmospheric pressure. What's left is a pure sugar syrup. 31 00:02:00,400 --> 00:02:04,640 Speaker 1: Here's where pop rocks unique recipe differs from other hard candies. 32 00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:09,440 Speaker 1: Before cooling, the sugary mixture is gasified and combined with 33 00:02:09,560 --> 00:02:14,440 Speaker 1: carbon dioxide at six hundred pounds per square inch. This 34 00:02:14,560 --> 00:02:18,520 Speaker 1: takes about two to six minutes and forms bubbles in 35 00:02:18,560 --> 00:02:22,680 Speaker 1: the candy. Lower temperatures make larger bubbles and produce a 36 00:02:22,760 --> 00:02:26,880 Speaker 1: better pop. When the pressure is released in the candy cools, 37 00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:31,280 Speaker 1: it shatters into pieces full of these trapped bubbles of gas. 38 00:02:31,680 --> 00:02:33,799 Speaker 1: When you put a piece of this candy in your mouth, 39 00:02:34,040 --> 00:02:38,760 Speaker 1: it melts and the gas escapes, causing the short popping sensation. 40 00:02:39,280 --> 00:02:42,519 Speaker 1: Those pops are the sound of six hundred p s 41 00:02:42,600 --> 00:02:47,440 Speaker 1: I worth of carbon dioxide being released from each bubble. 42 00:02:48,080 --> 00:02:50,920 Speaker 1: P s i is a unit of pressure where one 43 00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:55,200 Speaker 1: pound per square inch of force is exerted. Before pop 44 00:02:55,280 --> 00:02:58,600 Speaker 1: rocks leave the factory, they're examined by a testing panel 45 00:02:58,919 --> 00:03:02,480 Speaker 1: trained to evaluate the popping sensation on a scale from 46 00:03:02,600 --> 00:03:08,320 Speaker 1: zero to fourteen. Zero represents no popping and fourteen represents 47 00:03:08,680 --> 00:03:13,480 Speaker 1: maximum popping. Anything lower than a seven is rejected as inadequate. 48 00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:17,880 Speaker 1: Ratings between seven and nine generate a satisfactory pop, while 49 00:03:17,919 --> 00:03:22,639 Speaker 1: anything between ten to twelve is considered outstanding because they 50 00:03:22,720 --> 00:03:26,200 Speaker 1: pop louder. But what about the delivery truck in nineteen 51 00:03:26,320 --> 00:03:29,680 Speaker 1: seventy nine where the doors blew open. Well, pop rocks 52 00:03:29,680 --> 00:03:32,960 Speaker 1: shouldn't be stored at over eighty five degrees fahrenheit or 53 00:03:32,960 --> 00:03:36,440 Speaker 1: they'll melt and pop in the package. So the combined 54 00:03:36,480 --> 00:03:39,640 Speaker 1: release of all that carbon dioxide is what opened the 55 00:03:39,640 --> 00:03:43,760 Speaker 1: truck's doors. All that stuff about soda explosions and Mikey 56 00:03:43,880 --> 00:03:46,840 Speaker 1: dying is just a myth though, but that didn't stop 57 00:03:46,880 --> 00:03:50,200 Speaker 1: it from having a major effect on pop Rocks reputation. 58 00:03:50,720 --> 00:03:54,840 Speaker 1: General Foods actually had to arrange a telephone hotline at 59 00:03:54,880 --> 00:03:59,119 Speaker 1: one point for anxious parents. They even sent Mitchell out 60 00:03:59,160 --> 00:04:02,640 Speaker 1: on a tour to debunk the rumors. There's all kinds 61 00:04:02,640 --> 00:04:09,200 Speaker 1: of variations on the legend. Today's episode was written by 62 00:04:09,240 --> 00:04:11,920 Speaker 1: Christian and produced by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is a 63 00:04:11,920 --> 00:04:14,120 Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. For more 64 00:04:14,120 --> 00:04:15,920 Speaker 1: in this and lots of other pop and topics, visit 65 00:04:15,920 --> 00:04:18,400 Speaker 1: our home planet house to works dot com, and for 66 00:04:18,400 --> 00:04:20,599 Speaker 1: more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart 67 00:04:20,640 --> 00:04:23,240 Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 68 00:04:23,240 --> 00:04:23,920 Speaker 1: favorite shows.