This video shows closeups of how sodium polyacrylate, which is used in fake snow, diapers and things like max-oads, behaves when water is added. Apparently you can dry out the sodium polycrylate and reuse it later.

Sodium polyacrylate is a polymer that has the ability to absorb as much as 200 to 300 times its mass in water. It is used in gardening as well as fake snow, and diapers. This is several clips of small, 0.5mm – 1mm granules absorbing water.

Mario, Luigi and other candies get nuked for science.

In this demonstration we will melt down Sodium Chlorate and then drop in a payload of candy goodness. The flame color and power of the reaction can differ based on certain salts or even metal shavings. Check it out!

Chemistry is awesome.

This reaction is an extremely interesting reaction that is a rare phenomenon in chemistry – an oscillating reaction. Three clear solutions are combined, and the color gradually changes to amber. Suddenly, the whole thing goes dark blue! This remains for a bit, then fades back into amber and the whole cycle repeats.

The full reaction mixture is a stew of many different chemicals:
Solution A:
0.2M KIO3
0.77M H2SO4

Solution B:
0.15M malonic acid
0.02M MnSO4
Starch (very tiny amount, since it is only slightly soluble)

Solution C:
4.0M H2O2

The three are combined together in equal amounts. There are as many as 30 different reactions happening simultaneously during the reaction.

If only I’d see this video of Mr. Bergmann performing the exploding pumpkin trick as part of a Halloween demo for his chemistry students sooner, now I’ll have to wait until next year to try it.