I've always loved the Ri lectures. As a kid I used to look forward to them at Christmas. So glad they are still going.

This guy is very easy and enjoyable to watch/follow as he talks. My kids have alot of respect for him. Very informative, and he keeps his audience 100% engaged. Brilliant presentation Thank you, Prof. Bishop.

Just imagine if all teachers were this informative, amazing and engaging! I would have looked forward to going to school like Christmas Morning!!

Unfortunately, science teachers can’t do that. This lecture is expensive and to do this multiple times a day would be too costly. These are also just the highlights of an entire course. 95% of the course would be calculating the chemistry involved which is not as fun as the demonstration. Putting something together like this takes a lot of time that teachers don’t have. Most of our time is going to be spent grading your papers. This great for a 1 off presentation but impossible to do daily in a real educational setting. Just facing reality, science is mostly boring with the occasional awesomeness. You are just seeing the awesome parts here, just all at once.

This guy is a brilliant educator!

This is great for everyone who enjoys Fireworks, showing the hard work these professionals do for our entertainment on firework displays.

This is absolutely fantastic! I wish you were my chemistry professor

You would never guess his day job is researching machine learning for Microsoft, this is essentially his 'hobby' - if only all brilliant men were able to relate to the general public as easily as he does, wonderful stuff.

This man just straight up taught a bunch of kids exactly how to make gun powder and I'm all for it

Now they're all going to be digging their 20 ton grinders out of the bottom of their toy boxes.

Ok children.... for our next lesson we will teach you how to make thermonuclear bombs😳

Hey, it's kinda hard to get good quality potassium nitrate, so... it's not much of a concern until they get old enough to have their own debit cards to order it online 😄

@Mary Ann the Nytowl You've never heard of Stump-Out, have you?🤣 KNo3 is readily available at the hardware store, as is sulfur, and proper charcoal is easy enough to make with some willow branches packed in a sealed metal box which then gets placed in a fire, and nobody would question a kid wanting a rock tumbler😂. I was making black powder by age 12 and was getting into _much_ more energetic substances by age 14🤣. Now that I'm older I stick to safer stuff like rockets and fireworks lol.

I knew how to make nitrocellulose since I was 10 or 11, and gunpowder quite a bit earlier... But then - I was going to a Russian school, dunno how's science taught in Britain or US

I love it. This needs more views. Saw it before going to a fire work show, and made the fireworks more interesting...at least to me. Thank you for the awesome lesson!

I had to do a presentation in fireworks, what they were made of and how and why they work the way they do and this helped me so much! Thank you very much! 😁

This reminds me of when I was in elementary school, and we would get guest visitors from NASA, and the Brookhaven Lab, an many others. They would do experiments like these, and also liquid chemistry experiments as well. Those were wonderful moments that I can't forget if I wanted to!!!! I hope the grade schoolers are still getting visits from the science labs, and Nasa!

I love Chris Bishop's lectures, thanks!

chris bishop is the perfect person to make education scientific videos, just brilliant

This lecture is very educational and entertaining! Chris Bishop wonderfully explains and demonstrates, through experiments, how the chemistry of fireworks over time has changed and developed to create stronger combustion, different colors and different creation of explosions.

Great lecture and demonstration. And a great way to get children interested in chemistry.

Brilliant production. Would love to be studying the sciences again.

A wonderful presentation. My Science masters at my school were much like Prof Bishop. Chemistry and general science was vitally interesting and thankfully, I became so wrapped in it . Ultimately I created my own chemical business and the rest is history. Science is NOT a subject to be afraid of,the world revolves around the sciences, knowledge of the sciences is a great and ever changing method of creativity. It would be nice to see more girls becoming interested in the sciences. Think about it,Cosmetics, Hair shampoos, Cooking, all products of the sciences.Terry Offord

And what business is that chemical production ?

I could watch Mr. Bishop’s lectures and demonstrations all day

Superbly explained and demonstrated. Well done!

Always enjoy your presentations my grandson loves them as well, thank you so much for sharing. Well done sir!

Chris I just want to say I know you probably don't get the thank you that you deserve but I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for helping set up that nice demonstration.

Chris because of you I learned a lot today and also thank you to the presenter as well

Its sad that so few people have seen this as it is great fun and tells you a lot about fireworks

Excellent lecture, I really enjoyed the whole thing.

What an excellent presentation. This is how children should be enthusiastically educated.

Entertaining and educational. Really enjoyed this.

If every chemistry lecture had been this interesting, I would have learned it a lot faster and remembered it longer!

He he yeah, fire.

Goog fifth ng

Citric

That was very, uh... enlightening! Thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it!

Absolutely fabulous presentation. 🙏🌹🇮🇳

Another great lecture. Super presentation!!!!

Fascinate children through fun experiments and therefore encourage them to follow science lessons is a beautiful thing.

Wonderful lecture! Thanks for sharing!

This 1 hour lecture broadened my knowledge more than all the years of high school put together... 😍😍

That's an extremely poor indicator of the quality of the schools you attended. Either that, or a poor indicator of your willingness to learn at the time. Or, both, really. And, one would surmise, you mean chemistry knowledge, not... other sciences, English, maths, spelling, geography, or any other of the myriad of subjects not covered here. 🤨

What a lovely demonstration!

Fantastic lecture! Would it be possible to talk for an hour or so on LASERS? I'll never forget the Royal Institution Christmas Lecture I watched as a child. (1985?)

Ah a nice hour long one! The videos you guys upload are always interesting. I've set the quality to HD, and while it buffers I will have a cigarette and cup of tea. I greatly anticipate watching this video!

welcome in 2020. we got 4K instantly...

Absolutely brilliant! He's such a nice guy aswell!

Perfectly choreographed and thought out. very professional

I love your videos.keep making more

Just a point to mention on whistling fireworks. Modern compounds use a mixture of potassium benzoate and potassium perchlorate to produce the whistle without any harmonic tubing involved, a science within itself.

That's just great !! although I've learned must of it at school, that was a great lecture !

Excellent work with the children, thank you for that!

Amazing lecture. Thank you.

Very interesting and enjoyable.I make black powder for fun.The best method is to mill the chemicals to combine them.I have a mill with glass marbles to pound the powder.Never use ball bearings, if you like your house.

Good one, very well explained

This is how you do a science lecture to for kids. Don't just do fun and freaky stuff, actually tell them what is going on.

Very well done!

awesome presentation loved it lol im a huge firework chemistry fan

Very slick throughout, very good speaker, very clear explanations.

Ha yes, much better than Matthew Tosh's presentation about pyrotechnics. This is brilliant!

Thank you for making me NOT fail my chemistry test!

What a lovely presentation.

I absolutely love chemistry and physics

In a lot of ways I wish I was a child growing up in todays modern age. As a child I hated school and bunked off as often as I could get away with which left me in the lowest of the low forms. I did however make good my education after joining the Royal Navy and then the Ambulance service where I studied to become a Paramedic. Today learning is made such fun and so easy with programs like this and the Periodic Lectures to name but a few. Even at the age of 61 I still find learning fun. Thank you.

+Arwel Roberts Really? I find it rather boring now, this stuff never ever happens at our schools! This is really fun! But I guess it is easier to learn though. With new technology. But even if, I should be glad and happy about my life being lucky enough unlike some people to watch these programmes. Therefore Ri Thanks.

Arwel Roberts trust me, it probably got worse, I haven't learned that much about science in school. About 2/3 of science things I learn, it's from myself a looking up videos

Oliepolie from years 7-12 all I remember is blowing stuff up in science, heck I burnt a substantial number of tables, gunna miss high school

After watching his balloon explosions envolve different H and O's. I rememebered a time some 60 years ago, our science class teacher asking what would happen to such a balloon filled with H2 O. And for a volunteer to show it. Knowing H2O was the composition of water, and believing I'd get wet in the process, thus allowing me to go home. I raised my hand. Needless to say, pun intended; It blew me away. And frighten me half out of my wits.

... As Professor Bishop was setting up his experiment to see how long that line of his handmade gunpowder would take to burn through, the Eternal Boy Scout that still lives somewhere within me mentally set up to time the line's burn, using the classic silent "One-one thousand, Two-one thousand, Three-one thousand" & etc. technique ... and I got 8 seconds. When the good Professor guesstimated the burn time as *12* seconds, my jaw dropped. So, I grabbed a handy digital timer which I keep on my worktable, scrolled the video back and timed the burn time again ... *7 seconds,* and I was a smidge late starting the timer. ... Fair Point to me, I think. Seeing Lycopodium powder again brought back fond memories of elementary school science class. I was fascinated to learn that the powder was actually dried spores of the puffball fungus, which I'd seen for myself while stomping around the woods on camping trips. Being A Boy, when I espied some of the little round puffballs, I stomped them, and was surprised to see what looked for all the world to be a blast of fine dust come out. My science teacher further amazed me with the information that this very powder was what was first used as "flash powder" during Photography's early days. They sprinkled it into that T-shaped gizmo they would hold up during the photograph's exposure, and touch it off. But Lycopodium powder had one more fascinating trick ... my science teacher half-filled a beaker with water, sprinkled some of the powder into it, and it all floated on the surface. None of it seemed to be mixing with the water. My teacher chose me to come up, and just dip my forefinger into the water, right through the powder, up to the second knuckle, and then pull my finger back up and out ... because she knew my reaction would be priceless ... and it was. My jaw literally dropped, because my finger remained *absolutely dry.* ... Now armed with a little knowledge and therefore dangerous, the very next camping trip I went out on, I made sure that I was carrying my little waterproof cannister of phosphorous-tipped (strikes on anything) wood matches, and you just *know* what's coming, don't you? I found the most amazing close grouping of three nice, round puffballs, and with my fellow Scouts wondering what the Hell I was up to, I got a match at the ready, quickly mentally rehearsed what you already know I pulled off, stomped as hard as I could on the three puffballs, the spores exploded up and out into the air, and I struck the match. The brilliant flash of flame and light that resulted got even more of the reaction I'd hoped for ... my fellow Scouts were looking at me like I had suddenly sprouted *horns* from my forehead, or something. They couldn't get over it, and that night, we were all sneaking around in the woods, stomping and detonating all the puffballs we could find. What that must have looked like from a distance must have been magical. I seriously doubt that there was a single puffball left intact within a half-mile radius that night ... and in the dark, that flash was simply *spectacular.* I'll be 67 next month, and my lifelong love of Science has served me wonderfully well throughout my last 42 years of making multimedia art. Creative effects are merely the Onstage of what's *really* going on *Backstage.*

I think he must have counted the burning of the fuse.

... You might be right about that. Back in the late '60's, you could buy a smallish container of saltpeter at your friendly neighborhood drugstore. It was sold as a diuretic, but I and my goofily diabolical buddies had *other* plans. Also at the drugstore you could buy "flowers of sulphur", which was sold as a laxative. For the charcoal, we ground up a couple of briquets intended for backyard barbecues. Guesstimating the prescribed proportions as best we could, we mixed it all up, and then poured out a 1" thick line on my house's asphalt driveway (mistake), and lit 'er up. Worked like a charm. Yet as excited as our youthful testosterone got us, we weren't dumb enough to try for an actual explosion by packing the stuff into something. The lit line did a job on the driveway's asphalt, but quick thinking fixed the problem by waiting for the molten asphalt to cool somewhat, and then stomping it back into it's original form, more or less. And believe it or not, we were all so amazed by the stuff's power that we genuinely couldn't think of anything to do with it that wouldn't be too dangerous ... so we carefully poured it all into a bucket, wet it down using the garden hose, and then power-blasted the resultant slurry with the hose until it was watered down, and ran down into the lawn, where we throughly power-blasted it again to further dilute it. Then we worried that it would kill the lawn, but it didn't. Quite the opposite, the lawn *loved it* ... and for some years afterwards, that part of the lawn was much lusher, and greener than the rest. We all showed some solid common sense that day, and that's a good memory. We had a great time, and afterwards, could still count to 10 on our fingers. Crazy, just a little. *Stupid,* not at all.

handy digital timer, eh? Any particular reason you didn't you have a look at the timestamps of the beginning and ending of the combustion? It's a digital video after all. Btw, if you do that, you get 7-8 seconds as well.

+DMSG1981 r/nobodyasked

Thomas Cervasio, you must have a very happy childhood.

Great lecture and demonstration.

enjoyable presentation... Had i had teachers a little more exciting in school, i might have paid better attention!

An excellent presentation. I would suggest that Alder makes better gunpowder charcoal than Willow. I have visited the Royal Gunpowder Mills at Waltham Abbey and coppiced Alder was what they used. Waltham Abbey were the masters of English gunpowder makers.

I always thought that a "glow stick" got brighter when you put it up against a incandescent bulb. I now realize that this was because of the heat produced and really had nothing to do with absorbing light.

Highschool chemistry: taught us the formula for gunpowder using an antiquated term for potassium nitrate to make sure we couldn’t go out and make the stuff for ourselves. This dude: straight up teaches children the exact mixture and ratios 😆

learning more about science in these lectures than 12 years of schooling lol

He's learned his stuff quite good i must say. The only problem i found is that he tests fuses NEAR the shell. That can get you killed.

Did you miss the profile of the "shell" the red and blue balls would be what ever effect the pyrotechnician wants, they're not just in a ring, but in a layer surrounding the "bursting charge", so that they are spread about evenly(ish) when the charge goes off.

Thank You, Royal Institution, for this, interesting lecture.

This is fascinating.

So edicational! Keep up uploading!

so that's the best thing of being scientist --- being paid to have fun. 👍👍👍👍 Big Thumbs Up 👍 to this video. Education. Interesting. Informative. 👍👍👍

Wow, looking forward to making my own fireworks.

great teaching... would have some of this Lecture in germany

I need this man to teach me EVERYTHING please.

For some reason I always thought shells were launced in a similar fashion to setting off demolition explosives with a blasting cap - never thought of an electric match but it makes sense now. A lot safer to handle than detonators.

+David Butler you cant beat hand firing shells though!

Just imagine giving a chemistry demonstration and feeling confident enough that you’re willing to pick up your cup of water and take a drink from it, very sure you’ve not mixed it up with one of your experiments.

Fantastic...I learned so much.

Nitrocellulose is used to make lacquer. It is dissolved in solvents, resins are added to give the paint different characteristics, chemicals called plasticizers may be added in addition to the resins to the coating more flexibility, and pigment is added to give it color and hiding power. It is shipped in large drums where it is wetted, that is soaked in alcohol, or an alcohol water mixture. Old fashioned movie film stock called "celluloid" (trade name) is nothing more than nitrocellulose with some additives, most commonly camphor. You can imagine how flammable the film is. It also degrades with time as it breaks down and becomes discolored (turns brown) by the nitrates.

this was really interesting and i learned a lot

Very good lecture.

Loved it!

I have found some of the chemistry in Alibaba's and other websites. I am looking forward to impress my friends with huge homemade fireworks

Really! Didn't knew that i thought it was real, it has the lift bag, quickmatch and e-match on it and i freaked out when i saw it nea flames lol... Btw it is a very nice lecture and everything was correct on it.

Advice for young people: Keep away from fireworks! I know that I am a wet blanket, but you have absolutely no idea of how powerful they can be. In a recent accident, a professional set off mortars that were not properly buried. The bursting charge DETONATED just as it cleared the ground but was still inside the top of the metal mortar. A piece of steel broke off of the mortar and killed a man standing more than 200 meters away. Explosives are unforgiving. They can be set off by many things, sparks, heat, or even impacts. They give no warning. I know that fooling around with fireworks LOOKS like fun, but the best time to quit is before you start, while you still have all of your fingers and both eyes. Trust me on this.

Unravelling the mechanisms of fireworks! Why has this video taken so long to reach my screen? BTW, I want a shell!

Well prepared lecture

Adding just a little bit of water after mixing also helps to mix the chemicals. Then rub between your hands to get a kind of fine pellets and let dry.

nice!! a good introduction into fireworks. From a 30 year pyro and manufacturer

thanks you for this video. it helped me a lot with the my understanding of hydrogen.

Look up "Air Launch" fireworks where they do away with the lifting charges and fuses and use compressed air and an expendable timing chip so that the shell burst can be tightly controlled and synchronized with music and other cues.

Thank you for sharing, kind Sir's!

I'm a pyrotech and enjoyed watching this.

Really enjoyed the presentation. Thanks

In my original post I said "I sure hope those shells were just models". If those shells are live shells, and this guy was foolish enough to light other devices anywhere near them, then he put everyone in that lecture hall in incredible danger. If any of those shells went off that room would have been filled with hot burning stars. The bang, if they were salutes, would have injured numerous people from the concussion alone. Watch the video towards the middle. Those shells look live to me.

Brings back happy memories of GCSE Chemistry - My teacher (Mr Davies - Far and away the best teacher I ever knew) used to have a saying: "Now, I'm not supposed to show you this, *_but_* . . . " As far as I'm aware, not one single student of his, ever failed GCSE Chemistry or Physics.

really good demonstration on fire work. Like it. Vikram Sarabhai Community Science Center, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. Thanks.

' Excellent lecture and demo's !!! '.

Chris Bishop is cool, but Technician Chris needs more credit

"Fireworks would be pretty boring without colors" Somewhat true, but sometimes it's fun with salute shells, or polish firecrackers like FP3, P2000 and so on ;)

Now this is how you present science to 10 year olds. You have a clear goal: To make a firework. Then you talk about the science in simple understandable terms for a 10 year old. Unlike Andrew Sczydlo who is disorganized and way too technical for kids.

Most enjoyable, thank you.