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Fireworks, Flares, and Smoke Grenades Lab Design 24-25

The document outlines a lab design focused on the reaction between sucrose and potassium chlorate, aiming to explore changes in the reaction's duration and color by adjusting the amount of sugar and adding copper chloride. It includes brainstorming potential outcomes, variables, constants, and a hypothesis regarding the expected results. The experiment aims to create a longer-lasting reaction with a brighter blue flame, similar to a road flare.

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3 views4 pages

Fireworks, Flares, and Smoke Grenades Lab Design 24-25

The document outlines a lab design focused on the reaction between sucrose and potassium chlorate, aiming to explore changes in the reaction's duration and color by adjusting the amount of sugar and adding copper chloride. It includes brainstorming potential outcomes, variables, constants, and a hypothesis regarding the expected results. The experiment aims to create a longer-lasting reaction with a brighter blue flame, similar to a road flare.

Uploaded by

820665
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 4

Your name: Aarushi Srivastava

Your Group Members: Caitlyn, Ruby, Fatima,

Fireworks, Flares, and Smoke Grenades Lab Design

We saw this reaction involving Sucrose (C12H22O11) and Potassium Chlorate (KClO3)

Our equation: C12H22O11 + 8KClO3 → 8KCl + 12CO2 + 11H2O


We calculated that 6g of KClO3 should be combined with 2.09g
Sucrose
Link to a video of the reaction: https://drive.google.com/file/d/18hEjqAtHp9TAeZ-
jmK7CoUdqWvDD9nij/view?usp=sharing
In this lab you will consider the possible changes you could make to this reaction and
design an experiment to make that change

Part 1: Generating Questions


In the box below, Brainstorm all the possible different outcomes of the reaction. One
example is placed in the box for you:
Answer:
1. Make more smoke *
2. Make it brighter colors
3. Make it burn a different color
4. Change temp (make it colder/hotter)
5. Add glitter
6. Make it last longer *
7. Change smell
8. Make more sparks in flame
9. Make reaction bigger
10. Change Smell
11. Make it louder? More soundy?
Next we will think of ways we could physically change the reaction. Make a short list of
changes your group can think of. One example is placed in the box for you.

Answer:
1. Add more/less KCLO₃ than you were supposed to
2. Add more/less potassium chlorate
3. Add food dye to change color
4. Use an alternate chemical than potassium to alter flame color
5. Use alternate fuel source
6. Change the container instead of the aluminum foil, make it a tray, tube, etc.
7. Add more/less C12H22O11

We will stop here, and hear from other groups. When we share, add in any questions
you did not think of.
Now with your group select a question your group is interested in exploring
Our Question will be: If we change the amount of fuel given (sugar), will the reaction last
longer? How do we change the color of the fire?

Finally, we will need to do a little bit of research to gain more information related to the
changes we want to make: (some of you may need to do some stoichiometry or math
if you have changed the amounts of each chemical, some may need to look up more
information about a chemical if you are adding a new chemical to the reaction. Place
any research notes and links to websites you find in the box below:

Research Notes:
- Adding more fuel will grow the reaction
- In actual road flares there are things called “burn rate modifiers” which
change the burn rate
- This might be harder to do, it involves chemicals like copper chromate and
copper oxide
- Instead we will just increase the ratio of the sugar to potassium chlorate
- Road flares use chemical chlorates to change the color of the fire and make it
burn brighter.
- We can use chemicals like copper chloride (blue fire) or barium chloride
(green fire)

Part 2: Deciding how best to test your question


2.1: Variables
Based on your question, your test will have one experimental change that can help you
answer the question. This change that you have direct control over is called the Independent
Variable. Think: What are you changing or doing differently from the original reaction?

What is the variable you are going to be changing in the experiment?


Change color (coppe chloride)
Change sugar levels 2x

The experiment and the Independent variable will result in another change. This is the result
that you are planning to measure. We call this the Dependent Variable.

What is your Dependent Variable: what result are you measuring? The color of the fire
and how long it lasts
How will you measure this result: (what tool / measuring device?) Time, our eyes for the
color

What units will you measure in: seconds for the time

2.2 Constants
Constants are the other parts of the experiment that you will keep the same. If you have
more than one change in your experiment, you can’t be sure which change caused your
result.

List all the aspects of your experiment that will be the same. There should be several:
- Amount of potassium chloride
- Environment (doing it in the same place)
- Aluminum Bowl
- Temperature
- Fuel source
- Oxidizer

2.3 Control
A Control is used to establish a baseline for your experiment. It is letting you know what your
test or model would look like under a ‘normal or natural’ setting. We are all using the same
control (aka baseline).

What is our Control?


Answer: The original experiment, the video of Mr. H doing it for time purposes.

Part 3: Designing the experiment


Now your group needs to design the experiment. Start by answering the following questions:

What chemicals will you need? AND HOW MUCH OF EACH CHEMICAL?
4.18g of Sugar
6g of potassium chlorate
2g of Copper Chloride

Restate how you will measure the result and the units you will use: time in seconds,
color w/eyes

What other materials (besides the chemicals) will you need? Aluminum foil

Data Table:

Create a data table that will organize all the data you will collect. This will look
different for each experiment:

Type Color Time

Original pink/purple About 9 seconds

Design 1

Take everything we have done and now in 3-4 sentences describe what your
experiment will be: We are trying to make the reaction longer, similar to an actual road
flare. The color of the fire wasn’t that bright, so we are using the chemical Copper chloride
to change the color of the fire and make it a bright blue. This is closer to an actual road
flare, which would last for an extremely long time and be a bright, visible color.

Part 4: Your Hypothesis


FINALLY! After we have set up all this work, we will create a hypothesis. (Actually in real science
we would have done a ton of background research to discover what experiments have already been done, and
learned about chemical properties of each thing we are going to burn, but we are skipping that step )

What do you predict will happen in your experiment? The time will increase, but the color
might not be as bright of green because we aren’t putting a large amount of Copper
Chloride.

What will the data look like if your hypothesis is correct? The time will be longer, the color
will be blue.

What will the data look like if your hypothesis is incorrect? The time might less or equal to
the original time and the color might not change because we didn’t put enough of the
chemical.

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