Explosions of combustible powders mixed with air have wrecked sawmills, coal
mines, flour mills, and probably started the great fire of London in a dusty
bakery.
Bisto gravy granules USED to be Bisto gravy powder until a few years ago,
but too many people were badly burned through sprinkling the fine powder
above a gas flame...
Exploding Custard is a speciality of mine. (It is also now my trademark,
because other show presenters were beginning to ride on branding I'd spent
years establishing.) You could call your demo 'flour-power'... You don't
need to use custard powder anyway: it is just flavoured, coloured cornflour
anyway. Actually, powdered milk works better for this kind of demo because
fat has much a higher calorific value than carbohydrate.
The other way of doing it, where you bang the lid off a tin can with a flame
inside, can be less reliable in front of an impatient audience.
Here are some pictures of my explosions:
http://www.interactives.co.uk/hearts_custard.htm
http://www.interactives.co.uk/hearts_custard_photos.htm
Promoting public engagement with science
through a contagious delight in phenomena
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Give people facts and you feed their minds for an hour.
Awaken curiosity and they feed their own minds for a lifetime.
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Ian Russell
_______________________________
From: psci-com: on public engagement with science
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Judith Bunting
Sent: 12 July 2009 22:37
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [PSCI-COM] Explosion help!
I hear that custard powder and a match can be quite effective, but
would be scared to do it myself, because so potentially dangerous. does
anyone one know how much powder in what sort of volume makes a useful and
safe sort of bang?
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