Kid has a science project. He initially wanted to run an experiment to compare burn rates for regular 3% hydrogen peroxide and a stash of
30% hydrogen peroxide his grandmother has. I don't know where she got it but apparently it's not hard to find? I don't ask her such things. She finds chemicals that make the local pharmacists turn pale. Her husband mistook it last week for his moonshine. That was a
bad night.
It grew late and we didn't raid her stash, and so I suggested instead 50% vs 91% isopropyl alcohol. We did try the 3% hydro.
It's probably worth noting we didn't eat any of this "cook." The medium used was a selection of cotton balls.
Here is the control, a dry cotton ball. Each burn was timed. About 2:40 for it, very low flame.
Each was soaked and in turn, transferred [using one of my damn tongs??] to a grill. Last thing I said was, "use that old black grill." That also was ignored. WTF.
The ball soaked in 3% hydrogen peroxide did not burn at all. (It was mostly water.)
The one with 50% isopropyl alcohol was very nice, and burning about a minute. But it went out and would not relight and
stay lit. The speculation was that the alcohol burned off before the water could evaporate from the heat, leaving a water-soaked ball.
The 91% however, was
awesome. This is my new chimney lighter! The flame was great, and stayed that way for nearly 10 minutes, then conveniently burned up the ball. All with what seemed like a really clean burn.
No grill was harmed in the making of this science experiment.
Topic: Isopropyl alcohol and hydrogen peroxide (Read 1816 times)