4th of July Fireworks Chemistry - Smarter Every Day 14

[Music] Hey, it's me, Destin. So, uh, welcome to my 4th of July tradition. It's something I do every year. I'm out here on the Bickering Nag, alone this year. Everybody else had something they had to do because the firework show is late.

But anyway, I'm just gonna kind of take you into my tradition, show you what I do. We always try to stay close to the bank because we don't want to get near the motorized vehicles. This is kind of weird; makes you think the Booger's gonna get you. But anyway, um...

So, what we do is we set up opposite from the firework show, on the river. I take time-lapse, open shutter photography, and I've always been notoriously bad at chemistry. Like, real bad. So this year I decided I was going to learn the chemicals and the different colors that they make for fireworks. So I researched it a little bit, so I'm going to run through that with you.

These are, uh... not pure elements that we're burning here. These are compounds created with these elements, so keep that in mind. Red is strontium. Orange is calcium. Calcium salts, usually. Uh, electric white's like magnesium or aluminium, or something like that. Um... Blue, that was a pretty good one. Blue is usually copper. Green is barium. Yellow is sodium compounds. Gold is some type of iron, usually with some kind of potash or some kind of carbon in it. Purple is a combination of strontium and copper, so you get the red and the blue going together.

[Bangs] But anyway, I hope you enjoyed my pictures. I hope you think it's pretty cool. I really like it. It's, uh... one of my favorite traditions, and I do it every year. Unfortunately, the kids had to go to bed early because this year the firework show was too late. They really enjoy this. It's one of their favorite things, and I miss my wife out here with me this year as well.

But anyway, you are getting smarter every day, and tell your friends. Have a good one. Bye. [Music]

...and where your relative motion is going, so you can compensate for it. Well, chickens are really good at this, so... I'll show you. Watch his head stay totally stationary as I move his body. I can move his body in pretty much any direction. Captioning in different languages welcome. Please contact Destin if you can help.