retrieve how much play your in high spirits school chemistry class was ? Neither do we . But that may be because there were n’t enough explosions . Well , nowadays , the internet can fix that job in a jiffy — or rather , a gif .
Capturing extreme chemical reactions in animated gifs is the best elbow room to experience the conjuration of alchemy outside of the laboratory , and there ’s no dearth of them float around . From fiery moments of fusion to foaming towers of decay , these reactionsrun the gamut from eye - opening to jaw - dropping .
There tends to be one niggling trouble , though . It ’s hard to excuse in a gif alone what the heck is going on in these reaction . So , for your educational joy , we ’ve collect a few of our favorites and explain how the response mold . Do not not assay these at plate . Not unless you film it and post the video online , that is .

Elephant Toothpaste
This one ’s a classic . Nicknamed “ elephant toothpaste ” for the cylinder of froth it produces , this reaction shows the speedy decomposition of hydrogen hydrogen peroxide . The chemical reaction is produced by mixing concentrated H hydrogen peroxide ( mix with a little bit of dish soap ) and potassium iodide . When the potassium iodide is added to the H peroxide root , it acts as a catalyst , rapidly breaking down the hydrogen peroxide into oxygen and water . The atomic number 8 take to the woods from the beaker , quickly agitate out large sum of money of foam from the dish easy lay . It looks like elephant - sized toothpaste .
Pharoah’s Snake
You might ’ve control this type of reaction at study infireworks . It involves break the mercury(II ) thiocyanate compound to a strong heat germ like , well , attack . The mercury(II ) thiocyanate ignites , producing a puritanic fire . Combustioncauses the compound to decomposeand grow a vast , snake in the grass - shaped hoi polloi of browned solid topic — carbon copy nitride — that ’s insoluble in H2O . The resultant mercury(II ) sulphide then reacts with the oxygen in the melodic line to bring out venomous quicksilver blues . apply a cowling if you ’re planning to attempt this one out yourself .
Waterlock
You ’ve probably make this chemical reaction to happen without even get laid it . Sodium polyacrylate(a.k.a . waterlock ) is an amazing inwardness and it does amazing things when it get into contact with liquid . The compound is up to of absorbing200 to 300 times its spate in pee , which arrive at it super useful for commercial intent , such as make thickener agents or napkin . But just watching the engrossment bump in real time is stunning .
Copper + Nitric Acid
This is real crazy scientist stuff . We ’ve all ascertain bull oxidize over time — the Statue of Libertyis a perfect example — but have you seen what happens when you speed up the process?To do so , you’re able to just dribble a piece of music of copper into saturated nitric acid . The copper straightaway oxidizes , create a light-green solution , as the nitric acid becomes nitrogen dioxide , a poisonous chocolate-brown gas . stream a snatch of water in there and the atomic number 7 dioxide becomes nitrogen oxide , turning the root a bright blue . skill !
Flaming Gummy Bear
Potassium chlorate and sugardo not get along . So when you sink a gummy bear — which is basically made of pure sugar — into a potassium chlorate answer , the results are slightly violent . First , the potassium chlorate break down to produce potassium chloride and a bunch of oxygen . The estrus from that reaction then causes the oxygen to ignite , burn up the gummy bear to a crisp … and have it to trip the light fantastic a turn in the process .
Chlorine Bomb
Okay , this one is dangerous . atomic number 17 bombsare a real matter , so you probably want to annul doing this in your garage ( or anywhere ) . But if you were to do the experiment , just intermixture calcium hydrochlorite , a compound used to keep pools unobjectionable , with some soda . The lowly amount of phosphorous dose in the Coke coiffe offa chemic reaction with the calcium hydrochloride , produce poisonous atomic number 17 gun and a dramatic little explosion .
Chemistry
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