Mixing Potassium Chlorate and a Gummy Bear equals a big exploding mess.
Andrew Walls, a science teacher from St. Albans School decided to mix potassium chlorate and a red gummy bear together to see what would happen.
Chemists know that potassium chlorate is strong oxidizer and when you add heat to the equation, it reacts in a violent manner.
Adding the Potassium Chlorate to a red gummy bear makes it react with the sugar and create a look of fireworks, or explosion. Watch the video below to see it for yourself.
Why does Potassium Chlorate react so violently with the gummy bear? Potassium chlorate is KClO3, and contains one potassium, one chlorine and three oxygen. It comes as a solid salt, but can be melted at a high temperature, which decomposes to potassium chloride (KCl) and oxygen gas (O2). A Gummi bear is full of sugar, a source of carbon and energy. Add it to Potassium Chlorate, The trifectar – fuel, oxygen and heat – the ingredients for fire. The reaction is huge, producing MORE heat which produces MORE oxygen which drives the gummi bear into complete annihilation, A Schooner of Science blog explains about their experiment.
Potassium Chlorate and Gummy Bear
Molten potassium chlorate is a strong oxidizing agent that reacts violently with sugar. Gummy bears have lots of sugar in them.
The exploding Gummy Bear video was uploaded in 2008, but has gone viral again and has over 2 million views. Some of the comments say they want to see someone make a car with this technology. As a matter of fact the two top comments say “Gummi Bear powered vehicles!” and “With my genius brain I will now use this knowledge to invent a car that run on gummy bears.”
Someone also brings a good question of “Does this work with a green gummy bear?” With a response from another person saying, “I am pretty sure it work with every kind of gummy bear, as long as it has sugar.”
If you are in a science lab experimenting with Potassium Chlorate, please use extreme caution. Potassium chlorate should be handled with care. It reacts vigorously, and in some cases spontaneously ignites or explodes, when mixed with many combustible materials. It will burn vigorously in combination with virtually any combustible material, even those which are considered to be only slightly flammable normally (including ordinary dust and lint). Mixtures of potassium chlorate and a fuel can be ignited by contact with sulfuric acid and this reagent should be kept away from potassium chlorate, as stated by Wikipedia.
Want to know what happens when you mix a Giant gummy bear with Potassium Chloride? Watch the video below. It’s more violent than a regular gummy bear.
Big Gummy Bears vs Potassium Chloride
A behind the scenes look at our Big Gummy Bear versus a small bowl of molten potassium chloride. Lots of fire, smoke, damage, and broken glass!