Corn Flour Fireball

[Applause] I'm about to make a corn starch Fireball. Check it! [Music] Out, that is awesome! But it's not just about making a giant Fireball; this is about real science. What's going to happen when I put this butane torch on this teaspoon of corn flour?

Remember, that fireball that you saw was only two teaspoons of cornflour. But very little happens. I mean, obviously, the cornflour is burning; it's flammable, but it's not a violent explosion. There's no Fireball happening here. Why is that? Well, it's because this cornflour is all in a big lump, so there's not a large surface area where the cornflour can interact with the oxygen.

But if you blow the cornflour out of this spout, then you separate all those little cornflour particles, and there's lots of area where the oxygen can interact and burn the cornflour, and that's why we get such an amazing huge Fireball!

Now, we've changed the funnel, you know, because it's only science if you vary something. So, we've gone to a longer thinner funnel. Let's see if that makes a difference. Ready? 3, 2, 1! It was different because there—like, there's a lot more flour that came out. That didn't really burn; that didn't go in. Fego.

Okay, we've now reduced the length of this plastic tubing, which gets me uncomfortably close to the fireball, but I think I should still be safe. All right, let's see if that improves our Fireball. Let's [Music] go!

Now, the cornstarch worked really well. I also tried plain white flour, and that did not go so well. Attempt number one making a flour Fireball. Three—so disappointing! What happened to the flour Fireball? My suspicion is that the particles of this flour are not as small as the particles in the cornstarch, but it could also be that there are different sugars in here.

If you've got an idea about why this plain white flour didn't work, why don't you leave it in the comments below? Just be careful; don't do anything stupid with a butane torch and a bunch of very flammable material. So, it's probably a good idea to do this outdoors and away from anything that could possibly catch on [Music] fire.

Because the flame has those ions in it, it means that we can break down a greater distance of air.