whoa that was cool
sup guys welcome back to the lab I’m
grant Thompson the king of random and
i’m derek from the youtube channel
veritasium and today we are playing with
fire and ice i just got back from the
gas station where I picked up this bag
of ice but this is no ordinary bag of
ice you see when we pour this ice into a
bowl and light it off with a torch you
can see that the ice burn why is that so
we’re gonna come clean guys this bowl
wasn’t completely empty when we dumped
in the ice I first sprinkled on a fine
layer of a chemical called calcium
carbide DAC 2 now this calcium carbide I
just went to in a chemical supply store
and picked up for about 56 dollars but
the stuffs actually been used for
centuries originally it was used in
miners lamps they would put it in add a
little bit of water and it would pump
out acetylene gas that they could light
and that’s how they would light their
way in the mines funny enough calcium
carbide its main purpose today is to
still produce acetylene gas and when you
mix acetylene with oxygen it produces
one of the hottest flames burning around
3,500 degrees Celsius which is
ridiculous that is really hardcore if we
pour some of the actual calcium carbide
out here you can see what it looks like
they almost look like little grayish
black granules of rock not super
exciting until they make contact with
water the instant that stuff touches
water it starts releasing this misty
white vapor which is extremely flammable
and as we’ve just experienced as soon as
it’s lit it’s a very very hot flame and
we could feel this from quite a distance
yeah yeah we just lit ice on fire that’s
really cool let’s talk about that for a
second I actually have a little molecule
kit let me should I bring it over here
so the calcium carbide has two major
components obviously your calcium and
your c2 and their triple bonded these
are carbons that are triple bonded you
add in some water what ends up happening
is they break apart the calcium off of
there and you form calcium hydroxide
which is ca o h2 like that and then the
hydrogen’s end up going on there and
that creates your acetylene gas also
known as a sign and this is a very
flammable stuff that reacts with oxygen
and creates a very very hot flame that
is an amazing reaction what I think is
so cool about it right is that when you
do it on I you start it with just a
little bit of water so you just get this
reaction starting get a little bit of
acetylene but then of course once the
fire kicks in now more ice create more
water that for
the reaction producing more acetylene
and it’s like a self feeding cycle
exactly what I find is really
interesting and I’m not sure what
exactly is going on here but look all
the soot look at all this black residue
right here and we’ve got little chunks
floating around in the air and it what’s
really interesting is we just have this
calcium carbide and ice like nothing
else went into it and now we’re left
with bubbles and what an interesting
smell did you smell the gas coming off
as well yeah I did yeah it’s not quite
the smell of rotten eggs it smells a
little bit different but I would put it
in the same family the sound category
it’s a little bit like like gunpowder
yes what if it’s not like them yeah
almost like a burned rotten egg smell
yeah for sure but very very flammable
who knows what that would do to your
body something super I’m sure was basic
right so it would dissolve a lot of
things it dissolved your flesh yes
calcium carbide is pretty cool but one
of the things that’s made me wonder is
where does it come from how is it made
and as I did a little bit of research
what I found is in an industrial process
they actually use an arc furnace with
carbon rods and take coke and lime and
burn it together at very high
temperatures around 2,200 degrees
Celsius so you could probably do that
with your backyard foundry right well
maybe not the backyard foundry but I do
have a mini arc furnace ah which is
basically the same thing on a smaller
scale so I wonder could we produce
calcium carbide that might be an
experiment for another day so there you
have a guys now you know how to use a
little bit of calcium carbide to make
fire on I this is a very cool experiment
very very messy very very dangerous but
very very cool thanks so much for
joining us for this experiment guy it’s
huge thanks to Derek with veritasium for
bringing out his models and is showing
us the science behind why this works you
can go check him out I’ve got a link
down in the description and we looking
for you in the next video
sake then here’s an animating 3d models
yeah so there you go guys now you know
how to use a little bit of calcium
carbide mixed with ice that’s the
vehicles coming back sorry here you have
a guys night hot Sun of up this
hey guys I want to jump back in for just
a second to invite you to come follow me
on Instagram I’ve got a very active page
where I post daily pictures and stories
of behind the scenes and every day is an
adventure just take five seconds right
now to click the link in the description
to come follow me on instagram at the
king of random don’t see you there
sup guys welcome back to the lab I’m
grant Thompson the king of random and
i’m derek from the youtube channel
veritasium and today we are playing with
fire and ice i just got back from the
gas station where I picked up this bag
of ice but this is no ordinary bag of
ice you see when we pour this ice into a
bowl and light it off with a torch you
can see that the ice burn why is that so
we’re gonna come clean guys this bowl
wasn’t completely empty when we dumped
in the ice I first sprinkled on a fine
layer of a chemical called calcium
carbide DAC 2 now this calcium carbide I
just went to in a chemical supply store
and picked up for about 56 dollars but
the stuffs actually been used for
centuries originally it was used in
miners lamps they would put it in add a
little bit of water and it would pump
out acetylene gas that they could light
and that’s how they would light their
way in the mines funny enough calcium
carbide its main purpose today is to
still produce acetylene gas and when you
mix acetylene with oxygen it produces
one of the hottest flames burning around
3,500 degrees Celsius which is
ridiculous that is really hardcore if we
pour some of the actual calcium carbide
out here you can see what it looks like
they almost look like little grayish
black granules of rock not super
exciting until they make contact with
water the instant that stuff touches
water it starts releasing this misty
white vapor which is extremely flammable
and as we’ve just experienced as soon as
it’s lit it’s a very very hot flame and
we could feel this from quite a distance
yeah yeah we just lit ice on fire that’s
really cool let’s talk about that for a
second I actually have a little molecule
kit let me should I bring it over here
so the calcium carbide has two major
components obviously your calcium and
your c2 and their triple bonded these
are carbons that are triple bonded you
add in some water what ends up happening
is they break apart the calcium off of
there and you form calcium hydroxide
which is ca o h2 like that and then the
hydrogen’s end up going on there and
that creates your acetylene gas also
known as a sign and this is a very
flammable stuff that reacts with oxygen
and creates a very very hot flame that
is an amazing reaction what I think is
so cool about it right is that when you
do it on I you start it with just a
little bit of water so you just get this
reaction starting get a little bit of
acetylene but then of course once the
fire kicks in now more ice create more
water that for
the reaction producing more acetylene
and it’s like a self feeding cycle
exactly what I find is really
interesting and I’m not sure what
exactly is going on here but look all
the soot look at all this black residue
right here and we’ve got little chunks
floating around in the air and it what’s
really interesting is we just have this
calcium carbide and ice like nothing
else went into it and now we’re left
with bubbles and what an interesting
smell did you smell the gas coming off
as well yeah I did yeah it’s not quite
the smell of rotten eggs it smells a
little bit different but I would put it
in the same family the sound category
it’s a little bit like like gunpowder
yes what if it’s not like them yeah
almost like a burned rotten egg smell
yeah for sure but very very flammable
who knows what that would do to your
body something super I’m sure was basic
right so it would dissolve a lot of
things it dissolved your flesh yes
calcium carbide is pretty cool but one
of the things that’s made me wonder is
where does it come from how is it made
and as I did a little bit of research
what I found is in an industrial process
they actually use an arc furnace with
carbon rods and take coke and lime and
burn it together at very high
temperatures around 2,200 degrees
Celsius so you could probably do that
with your backyard foundry right well
maybe not the backyard foundry but I do
have a mini arc furnace ah which is
basically the same thing on a smaller
scale so I wonder could we produce
calcium carbide that might be an
experiment for another day so there you
have a guys now you know how to use a
little bit of calcium carbide to make
fire on I this is a very cool experiment
very very messy very very dangerous but
very very cool thanks so much for
joining us for this experiment guy it’s
huge thanks to Derek with veritasium for
bringing out his models and is showing
us the science behind why this works you
can go check him out I’ve got a link
down in the description and we looking
for you in the next video
sake then here’s an animating 3d models
yeah so there you go guys now you know
how to use a little bit of calcium
carbide mixed with ice that’s the
vehicles coming back sorry here you have
a guys night hot Sun of up this
hey guys I want to jump back in for just
a second to invite you to come follow me
on Instagram I’ve got a very active page
where I post daily pictures and stories
of behind the scenes and every day is an
adventure just take five seconds right
now to click the link in the description
to come follow me on instagram at the
king of random don’t see you there
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