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Check Out These Pumpkins Exploding, Spewing Molten Iron And Levitating

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Tom Hale

Tom is a writer in London with a Master's degree in Journalism whose editorial work covers anything from health and the environment to technology and archaeology.

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3345 Check Out These Pumpkins Exploding, Spewing Molten Iron And Levitating
The Royal Institution/YouTube

Since Halloween is upon us, The Royal Institution has found a pretty novel way of celebrating: exploding pumpkins and the eerie powers of superconductor levitation.

The first video shows a jack-o'-lantern bursting with a thermite reaction between iron oxide and aluminum powder. The reaction needs a lot of energy to get going, so it’s all started by lighting a piece of magnesium ribbon which creates a high temperature. They also stuffed the bottom pumpkin with some gun cotton because, you know, science.

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The second Halloween-themed video shows the power of superconductors and their ability to levitate a small pumpkin off a track. It’s all to do with the strong magnets in the track and a curious property of superconductors: magnetic fields don't penetrate them, so you can keep an object in a magnetic force field. Anyway, let Andy Marmery explain it for you.

 

 


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spaceSpace and Physicsspacechemistry
  • tag
  • magnetism,

  • chemistry,

  • explosion,

  • Halloween,

  • levitation,

  • pumpkin

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