Jump to content
Main menu
Main menu
move to sidebar
hide
Navigation
Main page
Recent changes
Random page
Help about MediaWiki
Special pages
Science Theatre
Search
Search
Appearance
Create account
Log in
Personal tools
Not logged in
Talk
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Candy Conflagration
(section)
Page
Discussion
English
Read
Edit
View history
Tools
Tools
move to sidebar
hide
Actions
Read
Edit
View history
General
What links here
Related changes
Page information
Appearance
move to sidebar
hide
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
===Full Explanation=== ====Chemistry==== We are looking at a classic combustion reaction: By using a heat source, a fuel and an Oxygen source, we are able to generate a flame. The Oxygen source we use, however, will determine the color of the flame during the reaction. {| class="wikitable" style="color:black; background-color:#ddd; text-align: center; margin: auto" |'''Sodim Chlorate''': | 2 '''NaClO<sub>3</sub>''' + Heat β 2 '''NaCl''' (Orange) + 3 '''O<sub>2</sub>''' |- |'''Potassium PerChlorate''': | 1 '''KClO<sub>4</sub>''' + Heat β 1 '''KCl''' (Purple) + 2 '''O<sub>2</sub>''' |} At the start of the demonstration, we heat the Oxygen source in order to get it to break down and release the Oxygen contained within it. Since the sources we used were (Per)Chlorate salts, they contained a lot of it, and so the decomposition of the salts will generate a large amount of Oxygen. It is important that, during this step, we make sure to not heat the salt too long. If we do, then they will completely separate before we drop the candy in, and by that point much of the Oxygen will be gone from our test tube, resulting in a failed demonstration. When the reaction itself takes place, we see a classic combustion reaction between the sugar (Glucose) in the candy and the Oxygen: {| class="wikitable" style="color:black; background-color:#ddd; text-align: center; margin: auto" |'''Candy Conflagration:''' | '''C<sub>6</sub>H<sub>12</sub>O<sub>6</sub>''' + 2 '''O<sub>2</sub>''' β 4 '''C''' + 2 '''CO<sub>2</sub>''' + 6 '''H<sub>2</sub>O''' + Heat |} We get four products from this reaction, of which we only see two of them: the Carbon and the heat released. The Carbon we see left behind in the test tube, and we also see part of it in the smoke that comes out of the reaction. The heat we very clearly see coming out of the test tube as a flame, which is colored based on the salt that we added at the beginning. Elements have different wavelengths of light that they give off when heated. Metal, including the alkali metals, give very distinct colors when they are heated, which makes it easy to identify what metal is being burned. This method of identifying elements is known as ''Wave Chromatography''. It is worth noting that this reaction is not what we would call a "clean" combustion reaction. A ''Clean'' combustion is when you have a reaction that only has three products: CO<sub>2</sub>, H<sub>2</sub>O and Heat. Although this reaction could have the necessary things to be clean, There is a limiting factor: How much free Oxygen there is to bond with. Since we have it within a test tube, there is only a small amount of space for the reaction to take place. Because of this, the Oxygen released from the salt as it is being heated is, for the most part, escaping from the tube. This loss of available Oxygen means that, by the time we drop the candy in, there isn't as much Oxygen left for it to react with, and therefore some of the carbon has to be left behind as a product, Which we see inside the test tube and released as smoke. ====Biology==== A combustion reaction uses a heat source, a fuel source, and Oxygen. Combustion reactions are a common type of decomposition reaction, and our bodies regularly use decomposition reactions to get energy out of the food we eat. The reaction we have here uses candy, which contains a lot of sugar. Sugars are simple molecules which store a lot of energy in their bonds. Our bodies can break down sugars, such as glucose, in what we call a ''Clean'' Decomposition: {| class="wikitable" style="color:black; background-color:#ddd; text-align: center; margin: auto" |+Glucose Decomposition | '''C<sub>6</sub>H<sub>12</sub>O<sub>6</sub>(s)''' + 6 '''O<sub>2</sub>(g)''' β 6 '''CO<sub>2</sub>(g)''' + 6 '''H<sub>2</sub>O(g)''' + Heat (2807 kJ/mol) |} Unlike the Candy Conflagration demo, our bodies can break down sugars fully into carbon dioxide, water and heat. Our bodies do store extra energy reserves in fat, but if we consume a lot of extra food we build up a lot of fat. When we are doing more strenuous tasks such as heavy lifting or running, our bodies will then do this decomposition reaction to get the energy stored away. This leads to a surprising result about how we lose weight; the water and CO<sub>2</sub> that we produce are in the gas state. This means that, when we are losing weight, we actually lose a lot of it by ''breathing it out''! We get a LOT of energy from this decomposition, which is then transported throughout our bodies to where we need it. In our demonstration, we use only a small serving of candy; when we use Nerds, we only use ten of them, which is approximately equal to 2.2 Calories. Keep in mind that '''C'''alories stands for '''kilo'''calories, which means that our ten Nerds provided 2,200 calories of energy! When converted to Joules, this means that we can get about 9,300 Joules of energy from our Nerds, which is enough to send an average tennis ball nearly ''ten miles'' upwards! Ten Nerds isn't a whole lot of energy for us though; the average adult needs anywhere between 1400 and 2000 Calories every day. This means that the average adult needs at least '''''six million Joules''''' of energy a day! This energy is what we use to maintain our body temperature, move, eat, sleep, breathe, talk, and process everything that we experience with our brains.
Summary:
Please note that all contributions to Science Theatre are considered to be released under the Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication (see
Science Theatre:Copyrights
for details). If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly and redistributed at will, then do not submit it here.
You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource.
Do not submit copyrighted work without permission!
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)
Search
Search
Editing
Candy Conflagration
(section)
Add topic