54/54 Fire Bubbles......... With Steve!

Fire Bubbles! Such an intriguing title for an experiment isn't it?

This experiment requires methane which is hard to come by and we were trying for so long to figure out what we could do. Little did I know that we didn't have to worry about it. 

My family and I were going to Denver, Colorado to see my sister's graduation. My brilliant mom suggested that we would contact Steve Spangler to see if he would let us visit him while we were there. He graciously agreed! We arrived and he showed my family and me the building and we met his wonderful team. What I didn't know was the little secret Steve and my mom were hiding. If you haven't guessed it already. He surprised me by helping me finish this amazing science adventure, we did "Fire Bubbles".

Along with methane we needed a beach ball with tubing connected to the nozzle of the ball. Some water, soap, and a lighter as well.

Steve filled the beach ball with methane.

With the ball filled with the flammable gas, Steve stuck the open end of the tube into a soap and water solution. Then by squeezing the ball, the methane creates bubbles because of the soap in the water. Making perfect little pockets of combustion!

After making a bubbly tower, I dipped my hands in water making sure every part of them was covered. Then I scooped up a handful of bubbles.

Now comes the BEST PART! Steve lit them up. LIGHT IT ON FIRE!!!

 

MWAHAHAHAHA!!!! 

Sorry I had to do an evil laugh. I mean, come on! Wouldn't you?

And guess what? My hands were perfectly fine! In fact it was so great that we had to do it two or three more times (Of course!).

COLUMN OF FIRE! 

I think my evil scientist side just peeked out.

Amazing, right?

But how did I just hold burning bubbles and NOT get harmed?.... not even just a bit? 

The secret, my curious friend, was the dipping of my hands in the water. The water is evaporating while the methane is burning keeping your hands off the BBQ menu.

I'm surprised we didn't set off the fire alarms!

As I have said before.... DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. I had expert help. Help from the best!

Steve and I experimented and messed around with some other activities throughout the afternoon. This was amazing--so amazing the WOW-rating for this experiment is a 10! A solid "Knock your socks off" and a blog first! Not only because this experiment is like nothing I have ever done before but also my science hero, my inspiration for this blog, supported me and helped me wrap it up in a special way.

Thank you, Steve!

53/54 Fire Tornado

Hello everyone! Second to last experiment, let’s get to it!

Fire tornado. The materials to this one are unique. A Lazy Susan is among them. A big thank you to my pastor, Mr. Nagy, for giving me his Lazy Susan for my experiment!

The other materials are a metal screen, sponge pieces, lighter fluid, a lighter, a pan, a container to hold your fire, and a fire extinguisher.

Now I did not own some sort of bowl or cup that would hold my flame. With my mom’s permission I took a empty can and filled it part of the way with tiny rocks for weight. Then, I laid tin foil over it and pushed the foil down into the can making a nice little cup.

I covered the Lazy Susan with foil to protect it. The metal screen needed to be stapled into a cylinder and I carefully cut and measured the screen according to the instructions in the book.

Enough set-up talk, let’s get to experimenting!

I found that this experiment was very tricky. So many variables, so many safety precautions, and a whole lot of patience. First, I had to test if my home-made fire cup, I needed to know if it would work. I put the pieces of sponge into the can and soaked them in lighter fluid. With my handy lighter, I lit the sponges.

I have adult supervision and many safety precautions in place. DO NOT ATTEMPT!!

    

  

It worked perfectly! My handy pan that you may recognize from “egg drop” served as my flame smother-er (I just made that up, didn’t I?).

I have a can full of flame on a Lazy Susan…… time to spin it! Let’s see what happens.

The flame became more vigorous but no tornado effect that we are looking for. That’s where the metal screen comes in. By carefully placing the screen in the middle of the Lazy Susan. I gently spun the the board around.

But between the screen having trouble staying up and the gentle breeze, it was extremely difficult to get a noticeable effect. But through trial and error and a whole lot of patience, I did create the desired fire tornado! Take a look at this amazing work of science!!

Pretty amazing!

After all the spinning, shifting, and testing we did to try to accomplish the tornado, it felt great to finally get the effect we were going for.

But that is not all. There is more to this story of fire and……um…. a Lazy Susan (Dramatic speech FAIL!)

While I was trying to get another tornado effect, the screen dramatically shifted and then tipped over, knocking the can over while the lighter fluid was still burning!! I instinctively grabbed the fire extinguisher and on the orders of my mother, blew out the flames. We didn’t want the fire to reach the ground. Thankfully there was no damage to anything or anyone!

Whew!! That was a close one. I was particularly glad that I kept the flames away from that pile of leaves. THAT, my friends, is why you take extra safety precautions when performing an experiment. It was kind of cool to use a fire extinguisher for the first time. It was also the first time my mom had to use one… she said she always knew that I was going to be the reason why she had to use a fire extinguisher for the first time!

Why did I have so much trouble getting my fire tornado? I think the big part was the breeze but also I think I need to get a stronger metal screen. This one was very flimsy so I should revisit this experiment sometime in my future and try it with different materials and conditions but first I will have to recharge my fire extinguisher!!

The WOW-rating for this experiment is an 8. It was so great when we had that pillar of fire climb the air like a ladder! But why did it make a tornado with the screen? The rising molecules around the flame and the combined rotational motion of the air caused by the screen create the beautiful swirl that you see.

Now I don’t really need to remind you to DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! I have seen videos of teachers doing this experiment in their class and it going terribly wrong. Please take this seriously.

We only have ONE MORE EXPERIMENT!!! This next one I have been waiting to do since I saw Steve Spangler do it way back when I was 14 years old. You are not going to want to miss this one.