The purpose of the experiment is to try to create a “Snake” firework. This firework isn’t explosive but may produce smoke. By mixing baking soda and sugar together, dampening the mixture with lighter fluid, and then igniting the baking soda and sugar mixture, we will produce carbon dioxide gas. The carbon dioxide gas will then puff up into black carbon ash. The growing of this column of ash is what the snake firework is. What we will be measuring in the experiment is how long we can get the snake fireworks to grow.
Literature Review
Fireworks are commonly used to entertain people with a dazzling display of exploding lights. They can also be used more practically, for example, flares are fireworks used for distress signals …show more content…
One of the main materials for making the snake fireworks is sugar. Sugar is a water-soluble compound (Singh). There are many different types and sources of sugar. Sucrose is a type of sugar that is commonly used as sweetener for foods and beverages (Singh). Sugar can be found in most plants and is actually an important building block for the plants (MEL chemistry). One molecule of sugar is made up of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen (MEL chemistry). But sucrose is made up of one molecule of glucose that is linked to one molecule of fructose (Singh). When sugar combusts it turns into water vapor and carbon dioxide (MEL chemistry). In order for the sugar to completely combust it has to have a good oxygen supply. But in this experiment the sugar isn’t getting enough oxygen. Therefore, the sugar decomposes to give off water vapor and carbon. The sugar decomposing to give …show more content…
As I predicted in my introduction, the reaction of the mixture being ignited produced carbon dioxide gas, which grew into a column of black ash. We found that the more we increased the amount of the baking soda, sugar, and lighter fluid that we used in the experiment the thicker and longer the snake firework grew to be. This can be shown in both Table 1 and Graph 1. Table one specifically shows the amount of baking soda, sugar, and lighter fluid we used for each experiment as well as how long the snake firework grew in cm. Graph 1 also shows the length of the snake firework grew in cm for each