Fireworks and What Makes Them Go
Sparks! Colors! Things that go BOOM! Chemistry doesn’t get much better than this. Ever notice how minutes drag on for hours when you’re waiting for a fireworks show to begin? Everyone’s thinking the same thing: The sky is dark enough the hot dogs are all eaten…come on when are they going to start? Then the first rockets streak into the sky…Ooh! Aah! Yes, it was worth the wait.
The birthplace of fireworks is generally recognized as China.
The first explosive mixture was black powder, during the Sung dynasty (960-1279). It is said that a cook in ancient China found a mixture of sulfur, potassium nitrate, and charcoal was very flammable and would explode if enclosed in a small space (History of Fireworks). The first application of this technology was for entertainment. The Chinese are still the leaders in the production of fireworks. Once the recipe for black powder was perfected, they found that it was easily......
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