Where the colors of fireworks come from

[DainBramaged]

http://boingboing.net/2012/07/03/where-the-colors-of-fireworks.html

[Uncle Joe]

1. That's cool to know.

Thanks for the thread, DainBramaged.

[Brickbat]

2. Very cool.

[Remmah2]

3. Makes one wonder where the chemicals go after the show?

Very interesting.

[Brickbat]

4. You see what happens during the show.

The chemicals burn off.

[CreekDog]

5. yes, some end up in water or on land, etc.

nothing magically goes away because it burns off.

[Remmah2]

6. But don't they turn to an oxide of one form or another?

I've been down wind at a display or two and been rained on by embers and particulate. If it was only paper (carbon) and residual blackpowder I wouldn't worry. It's those other compounds that make me ponder.

[FSogol]

7. Cattle flatulence is much more of a problem than the tiny particles leftover from fireworks.

[nilram]

11. +1000. The money, energy, and pollution from ONE jet fighter

would give every city in the US some FANTASTIC fireworks for a dozen years.

[Posteritatis]

12. Yeah. I'm kind of boggled that people are actually worrying about that. (nt)

[JohnnyRingo]

8. Trace amounts

If a smokestack belched these chemicals seven days a week, we'd call it pollution. As it is, mere handfuls of these chemicals are quickly and thinly dispersed into the atmosphere once a year.

It's like the difference between peeing in Lake Erie or dumping Cleveland's raw sewage off the North Coast.

[eppur_se_muova]

9. With most of these, only a *trace* amount is required ...

the hard part is keeping sodium and calcium concentrations low, because these are so abundant and tend to mask other colors.

http://chemistry.about.com/od/analyticalchemistry/a/flametest.htm

Many of the elements on this list are not used because of toxicity, or because they produce only weak colors. The ones in the OP give the best bling for the buck.

[NNN0LHI]

10. Amazing that after all these centuries no one has discovered how to produce blue fireworks yet

The person that ever does that will be a very rich person.

Don