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Chemistry

A Chemistry inspired channel



Sup guys! As some of you may know, I'm a student who is really enthusiastic about Chemistry. I've been in love with Chemistry for a year, and I'm going to be learning even more about Chemistry this year as I challenge myself in a college level course my Senior year of high school. If you follow this channel, I'll be posting some really cool chemistry things.

8/18/2015
Home-Made Crystals
As requested by a loyal subscriber of this channeled, by the name of Lulu2, I did some research into home-made crystals and learned about growing your own crystals, which is actually really cool.

Growing crystals takes time and patience. The longer the time you leave it to grow, the bigger your crystal(s) will get. You can grow crystals using salts, but the type of salt you use can effect your end result. The experiment is easy, and the materials you need are not hard to find(unless you are looking to use a different salt, and in that case, good luck finding the chemical).

I found an easy and safe crystal that you can grow right at home! It is called sugar crystals (also better known as rock candy)! Here is what you need: Directions:
1. Tie the string to your pencil or butter knife. The string should be able to hang into your jar without touching the bottom or sides.
2. In the pan start boiling the water. You may want to ask an adult for help or let them know you're using the stove, just in case.
3. Stir in the sugar one spoonful at a time. You want to make sure there is lots of the solute (in this case sugar) in the solution, but not so much that it doesn't all dissolve into the solution. If you have some undissolved sugar your Rock Crystals will start building onto those molecules rather than your string.
4. Add a few drops of food coloring if you want some color to your candy.
5. Carefully pour the solution from the pan into your clean glass jar. Make sure it's clean, otherwise crystals will build onto those molecules on the jar and not on your string.
6. Balance the pencil or butter knife (with the string tied to it) on the lip of the jar and let the string dangle into the solution. Again, don't let the string hit the sides or bottom of the jar.
7. Find a safe spot for your jar so it won't get knocked around or exposed to too much dust and debris.
8. Check on your Rock Crystals the next day and notice how they're started to take form on the string.
9. Whenever your Rock Crystals are the right size for your taste or when they stop growing go ahead and take them out of the jar and let them dry.
10. You're done! Enjoy!

The process of building crystals is called Nucleation.

If you are looking to grow crystals with different salts (which you should be very careful with, they may be toxic and you should wear gloves and not taste or smell), here are two great videos I found. My favorite is the Copper (II) Sulfate because of the amazing blue color, and I just may grow a crystal myself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71bvKydh5gk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKCS1DvORug
Enjoy, and have fun! Tell me if you actually try this!

8/17/2015
One of the very first things I learned about, and got to test for myself is how fireworks get their colors. The colors in fireworks come from a variety of different metal compounds. When burned, each element gives off a different color. For example, Copper(Cu) burns blue, Magnesium(Mg) burns white, and Strontium(Sr) burns red. The heat causes electrons in the atoms of the metals to become excited and move to higher energy levels, from ground state to excited state, thus emitting the different colors. Below is a picture that shows all the different colors of fireworks, and which compound or metal salt is used to create that color.

Have you ever seen a green flame, or a purple flame? I have! I have been able to experiment with different elements to create these super cool colors that are seen in fireworks. Here's what burning metal salts looks like:

As seen, Lithium(Li) burns a deep pink/dark red color, Strontium(Sr) burns a red color, Sodium(Na) burns a yellow color, Copper(Cu) burns a blue/green color (specifically Cupric Chloride burns a blue color, Cupric Sulphide burns green), and lastly Potassium(K) burns a violet color.

That is the Chemistry of Fireworks, and how they get their colors.