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Converting bond energy from a glucose molecule to heat / light energy... using a Gummy bear.
The Gummy Bear experiment
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Sep 4, 2008 01:40 PM
Science |
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In my high school chemistry class we called this the flaming dragon.
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just skip to 2:40 for the fun.
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Sooo... We waste 15% of a bottle of fuel that does a pretty decent job of making light to show how a gummi bear and some chemicals make light? All I see is waste. Where's the MAKE?
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@ryan, MAKE is more than making physical things, we have a chemistry book now (science) and this experiment shows "making" light and heat by converting bond energy from a glucose molecule.
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Hmm...maybe it's the terminology, but isn't energy released because of bond formation when glucose is combusted to form CO2 etc? Bond breaking is endothermic - no energy released there. And potassium chlorate isn't an enzyme, it's an oxidising agent.
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@jake, yes breaking bonds is endothermic. He probably meant to say that breaking the bonds in the sugar and forming the CO2/H2O bonds here is exothermic. The main point though is that energy is converted from one form to another.
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