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Exploding Acetylene Pumpkins! Halloween Science



The Royal Institution

What would Halloween be without exploding pumpkins? In order to not find out, we enlisted Dan Plane, our resident pumpkin exploder, to investigate the explosive power of acetylene.
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Calcium carbide reacts with water producing acetylene gas which is highly flammable and an excellent fuel for blowing up pumpkins. It is made of calcium ions and carbide ions. When it comes into contact with water it the carbon atoms react with the hydrogen in the water to produce acetylene gas. The calcium in turn binds with the hydroxide group to produce calcium hydroxide.

Acetylene is a hydrocarbon that has applications, in welding, in portable lighting and as fuel for pumpkin explosions, among many others.

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24 thoughts on “Exploding Acetylene Pumpkins! Halloween Science
  1. I suggest supplying the pumpkin with a stream of oxygen on one end of the pumpkin via the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide and acetylene on the other to prevent incomplete combustion

  2. Some ideas for next year. KNo3. Liquid oxygen that flows visible gas vapor out of the pumpkin and then ignited. Petrol. Vibration sensitive Nitrocellulose. Would love to see any of these next year.

  3. Oxyacetylene, as mentioned by some, would be interesting as an experiment but probably far too violent for carving. Do your first tests outside.
    Oxygen+dust could be cool, if it could be done reliably. Sawdust, metal powder, flour, pollen etc.
    Electrolysis of pumpkin juice and the explosion of the resulting H2+O2 would be cool.

  4. paint inside with damp NI3. Dry out. toss tennis balls at it from across the room.
    I also think thermobarics could be interesting – something relatively inert in a mass, but volatile when aerosolised.

  5. As a child in the 50s, I can remember that a few neighbours still used carbide cycle lamps, & a lump of carbide & a splash of water in an old paint-can makes a loud banger! 😀

  6. Before widespread rural electrification, some houses had 'carbide generators' to fuel gas lights. Growing up, I lived in a house that still had the generator below ground in the back of the house and much of the gas plumbing for the lights still intact within the walls.

  7. During the early 1900-dreds they used is also as head lights on bikes all around Europe.
    There is also this tradition in rural parts of the Netherlands to fire the lids of big milk containers with carbide. They can reach over 100 meters.

  8. We watched Dan give one of the best demos at the Science Museum Wonderlab last weekend. Dry ice and then liquid nitrogen with gummy snakes. Absolutely brilliant. “Be prepared to run if I spill any.” Loved this explanation of making acetylene.

  9. I had great fun teaching my friends sons about balanced equations and gas laws on bonfire nights. Fireworks were much less fun than a collection of 2 litre plastic bottles, a bucket of water and cylinders of oxygen and acetylene. Work out the ratio of oxygen to acetylene giving a perfect balance, explain that 1 mole of oxygen occupies the same volume as 1 mole of acetylene at constant temperature and pressure, fill the pop bottle with the appropriate ratios of gases, pop the lid on and then throw the bottle on the bonfire.

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