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Make a Coke and wax explosion

Make a Coke and wax explosion

Watch as we learn how to make a boiling wax and Coke fire explosion in this video tutorial. Why does wax burst into flames when its mixed with Coke? Paraffin requires a lot of oxygen to burn and generally only burns in a vapor state. Bringing the liquid to a boil creates enough heat to ignite the paraffin, but there's not enough oxygen in the test tube. When the test tube is exposed to the relatively cold liquid, it shatters. Between the hot glass and liquid boiling the soda pop, and the carbonation being released, the paraffin is thrown into the air supplying it with enough oxygen to burn. These Coke flames will be an amazing sight, so go home (which you probably already are) and try this out. Remember to stay safe while playing with fire.

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Comments

+2
jacquez32 1 year ago
nice
+2
xenexer 1 year ago
Would like to know why too.
+3
Bowlburn 7 months ago
only a guess but the fire is the energy that was inside of the wax. "energy is never lost only transferred" now as to why it isnt just absorbed by the cola might have to do with the difference in pressure ratios inside the flask, and outside of it. the more the temperature, the more pressure. it might burst into flames only because of the rapid rate at which the energy is converted. ... i think lol <.<
+1
ChemicalFun 7 months ago
check my comment about the video's grade for an explaination!
+2
MR LAMBO 1 year ago
What is the reaction
+2
orenalb 11 months ago
Very nice :]
-5
moises_77 10 months ago
this is gay
get a life
+1
SD_rulz 2 weeks ago
its more productive than yours
+1
cor1ruption 10 months ago
cool
+1
7asoon_3eoon 10 months ago
looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool
+1
XXXThesimsXXX 7 months ago
Cool
+2
ChemicalFun 7 months ago
This is a great video! I am a chemist, and I can shed some light into what is going on here. You see, when the heated glass is placed into the coke, the glass shatters because it's shape changes too quickly when it goes from the temperature of a flame to the temperature of the coke (thermal expansion of matter, this is why we run a pickle lid under hot water). LIKEWISE the coke, which has CO2 dissolved into the solution, is rapidly heated up by the glass tube. When a solution quickly gains temperature, dissolved gasses rapidly fall out of solution. This is why warm soda fizzes more than cold soda. ANYWAYS... everyone knows that warm air rises... well that CO2 that is quickly fizzing out of the soda is still really hot because of the gas tube... SO when the glass tube breaks, the CO2 pushes UP THE TUBE!!! this pushes the ultra hot paraffin up rapidly....

now look closely at the video, notice when the paraffin is just boiling, the vapors from the boiling wax are fuming up in a heated column. This stuff is super flammable! be carefuly not to get it near a flame... but just like a diesel engine ignites gas by compression pressure instead of a flame, this heated vapor column can also be ignited by compression!!!

so the CO2 pushing the paraffin vapor up the tube TEMPORARILY compresses the hot paraffin vapor column enough so that it reaches it's flash point temperature at that pressure and BOOM!

we get an amazing flash!
+1
parks04 5 months ago
at 1:31 it looks like a skull at the top right
+1
mrtravieso 2 months ago
very cool
+1
WARANDPEACE 2 months ago
COKE AND WAX EXPLOSION IS AWESOME AND I AM GOING TO TRY THIS
+1
HartKat 2 days ago
It was very nice. Good job.:)
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