A strip of magnesium ribbon burns in a block of dry ice, and it lights up the night.
The ash contains elemental carbon (C), and the grill is just to keep things random.
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Music By:
Music by Jason Shaw (RP-Clattertrap)
http://www.audionautix.com
Project Inspired By:
Theo Gray (Mad Science) http://bit.ly/IBDryIceVSMagnesium If you check out the video, please share the love and let Theo Gray know that Grant Thompson sent you. 🙂 Thank you!
WARNING: Dry Ice is extremely cold! (-78C/-109F) and can cause instant frost-bite to exposed skin. Magnesium burns extremely hot (2200 °C/4000 °F) and can cause severe burns and damage to skin or property. This project is for demonstrational purposes only and should only be attempted by experienced science demonstrators. Misuse, or careless use may result in serious injury. Use of this video content is at your own risk.
Project History & More Info:
This experiment demonstrates the reactivity of magnesium stealing oxygen, from a block of solid carbon dioxide (dry ice) and leaving behind black elemental carbon, and white magnesium oxide.
The grill doesn’t really serve any purpose in the reaction, except a subtle correlation to the elemental carbon that’s left as a by-product of the reaction. Grilling charcoal is basically just elemental carbon as well, so there’s a cool correlation there. When it really comes down to it, the grill was just a random, spontaneous urge to mix things up 🙂
I mostly wanted to try this experiment because of the sizzle, sparks and bright light. I love the mad science aspect to the reaction. The chemical equation and how everything balances out is nice to know, but not really what gets me excited.
I tried this experiment at night so that the brightness could be demonstrated. You can see that even though the table is set up in the middle of our yard, when the reaction occurs, it briefly lights up everything to the point where you can see objects in the background.
I got my strip of magnesium from eBay, and was surprised at how cheap it really is. The dry ice of course was purchased at a local grocery store, and this was an 8lb block cut into 2 pieces, and a hole drilled out in one piece using a Forstner bit.
This video will be part of a compilation of dry ice experiments that will explain in more detail what is happening here, so watch for that!
