Exploding Pumpkin ON FIRE!

Done by the UTS Sci Club, during House Halloween Fun Week's Pumpkin Carving Event.

DISCLAIMER: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME (or your friend's home) OR WITHOUT TRAINED ADULT SUPERVISION!

First, calcium carbide, CaC2, is added to water, H2O, which reacts vigorously to form calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)2, and acetylene, C2H2. The acetylene contains a triple bond between the two carbon atoms, which stores a huge amount of energy. This energy is released in its combustion reaction, initiated by the barbecue lighter inserted into the back of the pumpkin. This energy is released as heat and light. The rapid release of heat causes the gases inside the pumkin to expand at an alarming rate, causing an explosion that shoots out the carved pieces of pumpkin out and creates a loud bang. The heat in this case was so intense it even set the actual pumpking aflame!

This is similar to old gas stoves and Bunsen burners. Once the gas is on, if one cannot light the flame quickly, one should turn off the gas source and fan out the area, before attempting to light the stove or Bunsen burner again. This is due to the fact that if one leaves the gas on for too long, a lot of gas will build up, so that when one DOES light the gas, there would be a huge explosion. Usually we try to avoid this, but with this experiment, we're using this to our advantage, as we wait 15 seconds for a lot of acetylene to build up inside the pumpkin before ignition.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• pumpkin
• acetylene
• explosion
• fire
• UTS
• Sci
• Club
• House
• Halloween
• Fun
• Week
• University
• of
• Toronto
• Schools

[ClaudzStudios]

dawwww I missed it. why was it at lunch time this year?

[F2Fun]

@ClaudzStudios

There was a staff meeting afterschool, and it needed to be supervised, so it was rescheduled to lunch =)

[zeiarra]

LOL yay :DD that was fun!

[maddieforsure]

rofl maybe i can use the explanation in my chem lab?

bibliography: uts sci club video

[maddieforsure]

yay chemistry

uts videos are my favourite

this rocks

even better than the one we did in chem class!!