By Sam Eyers
This article will be about cool Science experiments, scientific and the interesting theory behind them. There will also be some information on the sad weaponization of science
Napalm
Napalm was developed at Harvard University by a team of chemists led by Louis Fieser, whilst trying to create artificial rubber to fund the war campaign after the Imperial Japanese Army captured the allied rubber plantations at Malaya, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. The mass production of Napalm was entrusted to Nuodex Products. By April of 1942, Napalm had become a dry brown powder that was not sticky or too dangerous by itself. BUT, when mixed with gasoline it was an incredibly sticky and flammable substance.
Chemically Napalm is Sodium palmitate.
Na (chemical symbol for sodium) + palm (palmitate) = Napalm
Napalm was used heavily against Japan in WW2, 32,557 tons of Napalm was dropped on Korea, and 388,000 tons of the chemical destroyed Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam during the war. It incinerated many lives and destroyed many hopes and dreams.
Thermite Reaction
Some of you may have seen Mr Davies complete a thermite reaction on the path in between Johnson oval and old boys.
For those who didn’t. It was an awesome explosion that went for about 10 meters. Mr Davies started it by lighting a mixture of Potassium Chlorite (KClO2) and Sugar (C12H12O11) which slowly reacted in a miny trail. Then that triggered the main explosion of Aluminium (Al) and Copper Oxide (CuO) which was a massive release of heat and smoke. If you asked someone who watched it, they would genuinely say that it felt like a bomb exploded in front of them.
Thanks for reading this article. If you are interested in this article, there is a cool website linked below that may have some gadgets you like.