Making chemical snakes - Boing Boing - The Diigo Meta page

• 14 Nov 07
  

  Ben Dembroski

  diy fireworks howto

  • OK, here we go indeed =) I hope this is not useless work.

    
    
    

    Chemical Snakes

    
    
    

    For hundreds, if not thousands of years, chemists conduct spectacular experiments in which the products of chemical reactions appear as snakes crawling out of the reaction zone. Some of these reactions are quite simple, so why don't we try them on our own ? Let's start with the simlest snake - the soda snake.

    
    
    

    1. Soda snake

    
    
    

    Make a little pile of sifted sand, make a small crater in it and pour alcohol generously into it (just take care to not wash out the pile of sand). Try to pour directly into the center of the crater.

    
    
    

    http://www.mntc.ru/projects/snakes/8015.jpg

    
    
    

    Prepare the reaction mass. What can be simpler - take on part of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) per four parts of powdered sugar (aka confectioner's sugar, icing sugar etc.), and mix thoroughly with a stirrer in some small vessel.

    
    
    

    (on the picture: baking soda, powdered sugar)
    
    http://www.mntc.ru/projects/snakes/8026.jpg

    
    
    

    Place then the reaction mass in the crate on top of the sand pile. Ideally, the mixture should be slighly less than the crater; otherwise you may get a mutant snake with horns and tentacles.

    
    
    

    http://www.mntc.ru/projects/snakes/8017.jpg

    
    
    

    Carefully iginite the alcohol. Don't foget about fire safety ! At first, black balls and other boring stuff will appear...

    
    
    

    http://www.mntc.ru/projects/snakes/8022.jpg

    
    
    

    ...And then THE SNAKE crawls out ! (video, 2x speed: http://www.mntc.ru/projects/snakes/01.wmv)

    
    
    

    http://www.mntc.ru/projects/snakes/8007.jpg
    
    http://www.mntc.ru/projects/snakes/8005.jpg
    
    http://www.mntc.ru/projects/snakes/8023.jpg

    
    
    

    Impressive, isn't it ? Imagine how this trick, perforemed by alchemists or high priests, impressed the people of antiquity, who had aboslutely notion of chemistry, but believed in magic =)

    
    
    

    The snake-creating reactions are:

    
    
    

    http://www.mntc.ru/projects/snakes/r.jpg

    
    
    

    The more alcohol you put - the longer the snake is. It consists of a hard foamy material, similar to burnt paper or a wasp nest. This is sodium carbonate with carbon particles in it. Carbon dioxide, produced in the reaction, makes it foamy. In the beginning the foam forming is pretty much random, but the process is more stable later on; this forms an articulate "head", followed by the "body", which strengthens the likeness to a snake. The snake formation ends when the alcohol is exhausted, leaving the snake with a white piece of unreacted mixture.

    
    
    

    http://www.mntc.ru/projects/snakes/8011.jpg

    
    
    

    WARNING ! NEVER add more alcohol after the burning is complete. The sand is burning-hot, so the very first drops of alcohol may ignite, igniting the whole stream and alcohol in the vessel you are holding. This may end quite sadly for you.

    
    
    

Page Comments

• 
  Ben Dembroski on 2007-11-14
  BoingBoing post about a howto in Russian on making "Magic Snakes".  Some kind person translated into english.
  

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