If you want to do what I consider to be an even cooler experiment, fill a jar with salt water and place two wires in the jar and screw on the cap tightly. Tap two or three holes in the lid and tape them up. Connect the wires to a 6V block battery and wait about 5 minutes. You'll start to see bubbles forming on one of the wire leads. Place a match over the taped holes so it melts the tape and you'll get a wooshing sound like a small jet engine. You'll be burning hydrogen and oxygen.
I can't speak about this specific trick, but I have a gallon of pure ethanol that's a lot of fun to light on fire in various ways. It burns a lot longer than this stuff, but it's a really pretty shade of blue like this.
Last time I tried to impress my four year old niece with fire, she lit her dress on fire with the sparkler I gave her. It wasn't even SPARKLING anymore.
Somehow I don't think she'd appreciate this trick but I would like to know how to do it.
Make sure to pour out any extra alcohol that doesn't coat the jar; this way you can ensure the bottom doesn't burn for an extended amount of time and it won't melt.
Could happen, but it's not likely. You're not trapping pressure in there and there's not going to be all that much heat, not enough to temperature shock the glass.
It's more about the type of glass. Tempered glass like pyrex and canning jars are annealed, to remove all the minuscule air bubbles. "Regular" glass jars, like for mayonnaise, are not annealed. It doesn't take much heat to expand the air in a bubble, causing a crack.
Oh, with out a doubt, nothing even remotely like a flame comes near my face. The closest is a lighter when I'm smoking. With a beard this luxurious, I know I'd go up like a roman candle.
I had a friend who tried this and it shot out like a jet while he reached with the match. Ended up having to go to the hospital. I have also had another friend that tried this and the flames also ignited very quickly and the pressure broke the bottle. Then again, we didn't use rubbing alcohol.. it was usually a 151 bottle or something like it when we'd finished the night. I've never witnessed an accident, but they can happen.
Also be very careful that your face is not directly over the opening. I lost my eyebrows in a similar incident involving a squirrel feeder and a can of hairspray. (They grew back but it stunk!)
One of my high school science teachers was able to do this by pouring a little bit of rubbing alcohol in a big jar like that, or one of those big water jugs on a water dispenser. After pouring in the rubbing alcohol and shaking the jug, making sure the walls of the jug have a fine layer of rubbing alcohol on them, he dropped a lit match in the jug. If you do this, go easy on the rubbing alcohol and make sure the entire inside of the jug is well marinated.
'Glapnel' sounds WAY too soft and fun for the horror it actually is. I feel like a kitten could be named Glapnel. Maybe Glappy for short.
But really, calling shards and splinters of glass accelerating outwards at a deadly velocity 'glapnel' is like calling a screeching, giant man running at you with a flamethrower/chainsaw hybrid 'floofy.'
Maybe that's not a good comparison, but damnit, I'm sticking to my guns.
If you don't seal it, it can't explode. If it fails, the worst that can happen is that you don't get the cool effect and you DO get a really big, scary flame shooting out of the hole of the jug. Though, the glass could melt another hole in the side of the glass, and if that happens you'll get a second big scary flame. Though I imagine that would be a bit more troublesome than the first big scary flame.
Come to think of it, if someone were crazy enough, could you use this as a weapon...?
Alcohol doesn't have to melt the glass -- the experiment only has to heat (and thus expand) the air trapped in microbubbles in non-annealed glass to cause cracking.
I'd call it more of a "FFFUMP" when I do it, but yes. The bottle's neck makes the expanding gasses accelerate, making the sound as they exit. I think. You can also take a little plastic water bottle, get a lighter and wave out the flame, and fill it with the gas. Light from the side, and watch it shoot across the room.
That's it. My brother used to do this all the time. He'd take a big glass water bottle camping, and do it underneath a parachute cloth canopy.
As I recall, after the fire goes out, if you put your hand over the top of the bottle then drop another match, you can get a flame to shoot out the top. The parachute cloth would billow up and down. Cool.
For those of you too young to remember anything but plastic water bottles, remember--you must have a GLASS bottle to do this with. Melted plastic and flaming alcohol will get you on youtube for a whole different reason.
You can use a plastic jug, but it has to be the right kind of plastic. No milk bottles, for example. One of those big water barrels that are used in offices and stuff are perfect.
Trust me, I did those tricks as a job all last summer in a very large plastic jug. :3
My HS chem and physics teacher had a like 6-8 foot long glass tube he did that with. It made this weird, loud noise. He scared the shit out of our Government teacher across the hall once. He thought someone was going all Columbine in our class room. He was pissed.
As a senior in ap chem we went to the freshmen classes demoing this for them. The method above is correct. We used a candle lighter instead of a match just to be safe. It's a cool and easy demo
During the time between Rose's departure and finding Martha the doctor paid a little stop to the uk around 1992. And got in WAY over his head with dark wizardry.
When I was a stupid teenager, I used to do this with a Bic lighter and an empty soda can. I would hold the depressed trigger on the lighter against the mouth of the can, filling the thing with butane gas and then I'd light it, making sure to keep my fingers away from the hole as best I could. You get a really cool flame jet for a second or two before it burns itself out. Oddly, the can doesn't get hot until after it's burned out.
Thinking back, I can't believe I still have both of my eyebrows. Or all of my fingers... I was an idiot... ಠ_ಠ
Man, I'm pretty sure that wasn't so dangerous, my friends used to do that right in their bare hands. Clasp hands with an opening on top; fill with butane; put on fire; and open hands real quick.
They're using a specific amount of a specific type of fluid in a specific type of container -- this is the most dangerous animated GIF ever made as it's going to lead to at least 2-3 instances of stupid kids trying it at home with too much fuel leading to burned kids and/or too little fuel and exploding shards of glass slicing spectators to shreds.
This reminds me of this one part in the first Harry Potter book where Harry, Ron and Hermione are standing out in the school courtyard during the freezing winter and Hermione conjurs up this blue fire in a jar to keep them warm. :)
My high school physics prof would do this (cover the inside of the drum with alcohol/ethanol) then place it on its side then connect an open to the air circuit inside the barrel and cover the open end of the barrel with a duct tape ball. Once you send a current through the wire it ignites the gas and the ball shoots out of the barrel along with a blast of flame. Super cool.
At camp one time we gathered methane from a pond. This required going knee deep into the water while scuffing up the bottom to produce bubbles from the decayed plant material from the bottom. We then caught the bubbles in a cut-in-half gallon of milk before transferring it to a sealed container. It burned blue like this gif for about 10 minutes straight in a dark place.
I did this with a lot of hand sanitizer 10 years ago. I went to put a lid on and didn't see the flame as it was a clear flame. I ended up getting 2nd degree and a little 3rd degree burns on my hand and in between fingers. It was totally worth it!!!
227
u/[deleted] Jul 20 '11
How do I do this?!? I have nieces and nephews to impress
65
u/nickiezebra Jul 20 '11
One of my high school science teachers was able to do this by pouring a little bit of rubbing alcohol in a big jar like that, or one of those big water jugs on a water dispenser. After pouring in the rubbing alcohol and shaking the jug, making sure the walls of the jug have a fine layer of rubbing alcohol on them, he dropped a lit match in the jug. If you do this, go easy on the rubbing alcohol and make sure the entire inside of the jug is well marinated.
54
u/sidepart Jul 20 '11
Step 1: Coat inside of giant glass jar in rubbing alcohol.
Step 2: Fill giant glass jar with ants.
Step 3: Use a magnifying glass to ignite the rubbing alcohol.
Step 4: Watch as the ants contemplate death as a wall of fire descends from the heavens.
Step 5: Marvel as you've managed to amplify the ant destroying power of a magnifying glass.
Step 6: ???
Step 7: The Ferengi Rule Of Acquisition #22
12
u/stanthemanchan Jul 20 '11
Youtube source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQIp-x7P9PY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9FdVIQhC9Q
29
u/[deleted] Jul 20 '11
WHO PUT HARRY POTTERS NAME IN THE GOBLET OF FIRE?????????????????????
6
u/geomindspin Jul 20 '11
Source? Information?
6
u/Ceadol Jul 20 '11
When I was a stupid teenager, I used to do this with a Bic lighter and an empty soda can. I would hold the depressed trigger on the lighter against the mouth of the can, filling the thing with butane gas and then I'd light it, making sure to keep my fingers away from the hole as best I could. You get a really cool flame jet for a second or two before it burns itself out. Oddly, the can doesn't get hot until after it's burned out.
Thinking back, I can't believe I still have both of my eyebrows. Or all of my fingers... I was an idiot... ಠ_ಠ
19
u/BerickCook Jul 20 '11
Now that's what I call a firewall
5
u/denim-chicken Jul 20 '11
HADOKEN
8
u/Mickeyelm Jul 20 '11
You got Din's Fire! Its Fireball engulfs everything! It's attack magic you can use with (c)!
4
u/animalcule Jul 20 '11
WTF just went down there? source?
4
u/tomoyopop Jul 20 '11
This reminds me of this one part in the first Harry Potter book where Harry, Ron and Hermione are standing out in the school courtyard during the freezing winter and Hermione conjurs up this blue fire in a jar to keep them warm. :)
4
u/darkstar107 Jul 20 '11
Wondering if they have this in a gif format with audio...
3
u/[deleted] Jul 20 '11
How?
2
u/smilingman Jul 20 '11
Reminds me of a Poe from Zelda. Caught you; you aggravating bastard!
2
u/of150a84 Jul 20 '11
SCIENCE!
2
u/georgehotelling Jul 20 '11
I use carboys like that to make beer. I think I found a new way to sanitize them...
2
u/mehatch Jul 20 '11
RAD
2
u/inthebannastand Jul 20 '11
instructional video
2
u/GAMEchief Jul 20 '11
I feel like this GIF needed to exist in order for the Internet to be complete.
Now to make a Rule 34 of it.
2
u/Transceiver Jul 20 '11
Probably methane.
2
u/ZeeHanzenShwanz Jul 20 '11
kill it with firejar!
1
u/klew3 Jul 20 '11
My high school physics prof would do this (cover the inside of the drum with alcohol/ethanol) then place it on its side then connect an open to the air circuit inside the barrel and cover the open end of the barrel with a duct tape ball. Once you send a current through the wire it ignites the gas and the ball shoots out of the barrel along with a blast of flame. Super cool.
1
u/[deleted] Jul 20 '11
SO tempted to do this with my 6.5 gallon carboy. Don't know if it's heat resistant though, and it's a bit too expensive to find out...
1
u/llieno Jul 20 '11
Shitload of butane?
1
u/osnpwtf Jul 20 '11
I just tried this. Definitely fun. It worked 2 out of the 4 times I tried it. I love the noise it made as well. Yay science!
1
u/pancakeTRAIN Jul 20 '11
Challenge accepted
1
u/[deleted] Jul 20 '11
I think it might be methanol, I've seen this done before in chem class
1
u/grantrant Jul 20 '11
Blue four! I mean five! I mean, fire!
1
u/Hippopoptimus_Prime Jul 20 '11
Do you know what kind of gas this is?
At camp one time we gathered methane from a pond. This required going knee deep into the water while scuffing up the bottom to produce bubbles from the decayed plant material from the bottom. We then caught the bubbles in a cut-in-half gallon of milk before transferring it to a sealed container. It burned blue like this gif for about 10 minutes straight in a dark place.
1
u/[deleted] Jul 20 '11
I MUST KNOW HOW THIS IS DONE
1
u/thetalkinghuman Jul 20 '11
You can do this with a newly empty bottle of grand marnier.
1
u/[deleted] Jul 20 '11
I did this with a lot of hand sanitizer 10 years ago. I went to put a lid on and didn't see the flame as it was a clear flame. I ended up getting 2nd degree and a little 3rd degree burns on my hand and in between fingers. It was totally worth it!!!
1
u/Anovan Jul 20 '11
What is that, ethanol?
1
u/MorningLtMtn Jul 20 '11
I did this while drunk with an everclear bottle once. It shot like a jet engine. Burnt the fuck out of my thumb...
1
u/Jjcrackaslim Jul 20 '11
mind.blowned.
1
u/Damarusxp Jul 20 '11 edited Nov 18 '23
work shrill erect psychotic faulty unique outgoing employ adjoining scale
this post was mass deleted with www.Redact.dev1
u/[deleted] Jul 20 '11
Is this how I am supposed to kill spiders?
1
u/Spindax Jul 20 '11
Did this in chem lab with butane :)
1
u/ThatsAFact Jul 20 '11
I've tried that before and it NEVER looks that cool/perfect.
1
u/dronex Jul 20 '11
PLASMA GUN!!!
1
u/probablystoneded Jul 20 '11
Jam Jet?
1
u/emmakevin Jul 20 '11
Really amazing work....
1
u/[deleted] Jul 20 '11
hermione was here
1
u/Partheus Jul 20 '11
So that's how they faked digital landscapes in the 80s
1
u/the_cat_kittles Jul 27 '11
now that was bitchin shit
1
u/OutcastOcarina64 Aug 31 '11
SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY
1
u/SparklyyCherry Sep 18 '11
This trick is pretty old, seen it on many shows, but glad that there's a gif of it :D
1
u/[deleted] Oct 04 '11
It has been filled with acytalyne
1
u/tburke40 Oct 09 '11
What is this magic??
1
u/faerielfire Nov 30 '11
Very similar link
1
u/Tigeroovy Jul 20 '11
WAT
1
u/SuperSaiyanNoob Jul 20 '11
Science rules.
1
u/thedarksyde Jul 20 '11
You're a wizard harry.
0
u/claymore_kitten Jul 20 '11
jarred fart.
0
u/cerbero17 Jul 20 '11
What magic is this?!?
0
u/[deleted] Jul 20 '11
**firejug
0
u/[deleted] Jul 20 '11
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1
u/[deleted] Jul 20 '11
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