Re:Explosive Bubbles

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From: George Fosselius (fosselius@sbcglobal.net)
Date: Mon Nov 08 2004 - 08:54:58 PST 

Message-ID: <001001c4c5b3$ae6ccbc0$934a7b43@Nicodemus>
From: "George Fosselius" <fosselius@sbcglobal.net>
Subject: Re:Explosive Bubbles
Date: Mon, 8 Nov 2004 08:54:58 -0800

Caution -> Warning -> Danger
(I've used these signs to illustrate INCREASING care required left to
right.)

Bubbles have little shrapnel when exploded via a flame on the end of a
4(four) foot glass tube.

But any container with the gas mixture is DANGERous.

One of my students wanted to recreate the ChemStudy film sequence to show
the 2:1 ratio by reacting several ratios.
We rigged a glass tube with gas valves and a sparkplug at the top, and the
bottom open in a bucket of water.
I don't remember which ratio caused the tube to detonate throwing shards 15
feet into the blackout drape. We were protected by a U-2 camera bay curved
polycarbonate windshield.
The video showed the intact glass in one frame and no glass in the next.

I'd leave hydrogen-oxygen for the freshman chemistry professors.
Stick to exploding paint cans with natural gas.

George Fosselius
reply to: george@mdsc-ic.org

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