4 coloured flaming puddings | 12 Explosions of Christmas with Greg Foot | Head Squeeze

To see Greg and Mike's full '12 Explosions of Christmas' bonanza here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIlji543PJw

Greg and Mike head inside for their fourth explanation of the '12 Explosions of Christmas'. Getting into the spirit of Christmas, they find a way to create different coloured flames for the traditional flaming Christmas pudding!

Using different metal salts including strontium, barium, copper and sodium, they create crimson, green, bluish-green and yellow flames from the respective metals.

So how do the metal salts give out coloured light? Well when the metal ions in the salts take on the energy from the heat of a non-luminous flame, the electrons inside them first get excited, before coming back down to their normal energy level when they give the energy back out in the form of light. Each of the different metal salts will give out different light photons in this reaction.

We don't recommend you try creating a coloured flame on your own pud, it'll ruin dessert for everyone!

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Greg Foot is a Science Presenter on TV, Online & at Live Events, and a Wellcome Trust Engagement Fellow. For more science daredevil mayhem follow Greg here: https://twitter.com/gregfoot

Mike Sansom is a fireworks and explosive pro and runs BrightFire Pyrotechnics. For more from Mike & his explosive elves follow: https://twitter.com/ brightfirepyro

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