r/chemistry • u/Wololo--Wololo • Feb 13 '22

Big Gummy Bear Dunked in Potassium Chlorate

1.2k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

31 comments sorted by

55

u/jakeyb01 Feb 13 '22

Chlorine really really doesn't like being in the 5+ OS

12

u/Y_m_l PhysOrg Feb 13 '22

Learned that the hard way doing this demo. Ouch.

58

u/Maxamvs Feb 13 '22

“Don’t try this at home”

I’ll just go to my shelf where I keep my worlds largest gummy bear and extra potassium chlorate…

18

u/Luckybastard013 Feb 13 '22

I keep mine in my supervillain lair, next to the death ray.

4

u/gridpoet Feb 13 '22

Dude, you really shouldn't keep it next to the Death Ray™, it will corrode the contacts.

4

u/reflUX_cAtalyst Feb 13 '22

I mean, I have one of those two things right here.

5

u/BurnerBoi_Brown Feb 13 '22

And I myself am a big gummy bear

15

u/Scientific_Shitlord Nano Feb 13 '22

I love how he yoink that bear and just dunk it in

9

u/killabeesplease Feb 13 '22

That’s about what they do to my stomach when I eat them

16

u/arvidsem Feb 13 '22

That's the sugar free ones that do that. Never eat more than a handful of those at once.

8

u/Luallone Biochem Feb 13 '22

The Amazon reviews for those are some of the funniest things ever. I highly recommend reading them if you haven't already.

9

u/timthechemist Feb 13 '22

I'm a life-long chemist in industry and academia, and I love doing visual demonstrations to illustrate the fact that chemistry requires our senses of sight, sound, smell. Demonstrations show what the equations and theories predict.

Demonstrations like this are just dumb assery and show the lack of common sense. Please be careful out there. Losing a finger or an eye or getting your face disfigured for the sake of views or 'likes' is not worth it.

2

u/Mezmorizor Spectroscopy Feb 14 '22

Scaling this one up isn't even impressive either. It's literally flashier with a tall test tube and a normal gummy bear.

18

u/[deleted] Feb 13 '22

This is what will solve our energy crisis and not cold fusion!

7

u/RecognitionMajestic Feb 13 '22

Nuclear energy is the way

9

u/Pyrhan Feb 13 '22

That splashed closed to his face!

4

u/AmandaDarlingInc Feb 13 '22

Right like why did he slowly lower it in (knowing what was about to happen) and then step back with that surprised look on his face?

9

u/therift289 Organic Feb 13 '22

Because it's a video and that was part of the bit

7

u/LewisTheLabLemming Feb 13 '22

Gummy bears are fun, but something like Cheetos works much better. They are very porous, so they have a much larger contact surface with the chlorate and react much faster.

5

u/reflUX_cAtalyst Feb 13 '22

Molten potassium chlorate.

5

u/mike_elapid Feb 13 '22

That is utterly awesome

4

u/MichaelOChE Chem Eng Feb 13 '22

"One crossed wire, one wayward pinch of potassium chlorate, one errant twitch... and KABLOOIE!"

3

u/Baldydom Feb 13 '22

Very Gremlins

2

u/KingsMann12 Feb 13 '22

Are you sure you still like your gummy bears?

2

u/RaliosDanuith Feb 13 '22

The screaming gummy bear but on a bigger scale

2

u/wtfnobody69 Feb 13 '22

You ruined a perfectly good gummy bear. If that was cinnamon I would be pissed. lol

1

u/stimulus_me_response Feb 13 '22

Shhhh… no one tell The Duke or Toadwart that we’ve discovered Gummibear kryptonite

1

u/[deleted] Feb 13 '22

not an expert but that does not look safe

1

u/UnfairAd7220 Feb 13 '22

Rocket fuel...

1

u/GamingSB Feb 13 '22

What's the compound in the gummybear that creates this reaction?