My 14 year old son said that he would like to "blow things up" this summer. Without blowing him up, I'm interested in semi-safely indulging this interest. I've often met interesting people who spent their teenage years on farms or in basements with chemistry sets, doing such things, at least in the days when you could buy the needed materials from the drug store or order them. I know it's not that easy anymore. But is there something we could do, fairly tame, but not too tame? I have no idea where to begin...

I wouldn't want to go there ever, the way things are nowadays. I wouldn't really encourage him to do this, or even you might want to re-direct this energy somewhere else.

Not a good idea although you may think you know your son quite well, there is no telling where this may take him.

Bottle rockets are great(see if you can find the brainiac example), erm maybe the mentos and diet coke reaction(look it up on you tube)

Maybe if you want tokeep him occupied for a long time have him cut the heads off matches until he has enough to fill the inside of a ping pong ball, then fill the ping pong ball with the matchesheads and then throw it,(im notentirely sure if this one works, the idea came from a mate of mine in the army, he says it does)

You should quite easily be able to get a thermite reaction going.

Thermite - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermite)

It's not quite blowing things up, but it is fun! And educational! Just need some rust, some aluminium powder (ask most metalworking places for some that's left over) and a magnesium ribbon or 2.

Safety and research is a big must if you want to try it.

I can't list the few common household items when mixed together will do it, but I will note that in many places evevn walmart, you can buy blackpowder , and use it for many "blowing things up" But if you don't know what you are doing don't
** since minors can't buy it, adult use would be required

Thanks to both of you. :-) I will check these out. Don't worry, we'll be careful. I'll read up and do it somewhere with plenty of space and protections.

I know there is something you can do by putting a Mentos in a diet coke... it blows up pretty good. If you want to see how this works there are some great, yet silly, videos on youtube.com that show some kiddos doing this. I bet your son would have fun with this one. He could also experiment with the good ole vinegar and baking soda trick!

Throwing sodium cubes into water is always fun but you would have to order from a chemical supplier, be careful not to make skin contact, and it gets a little pricey.

These aren't proper explosions (sorry) but still some fun related activities I used to enjoy.

Baking soda and vinegar fizzes nicely - it's used all the tip to make erupting volcano models - I always found this fun as you can spend ages making a cool volcanoes as well.

Bottle rockets also not proper explosions but lots of fun Bottle Rockets (http://members.aol.com/hayhurst1/h2orocket.htm) If you get them right they really go high and look pretty impressive.

These will take a while to make so should keep him occupied in the same token

You like that one guy said black powder is great for blowing things up I am looking into buying a black powder gun. So you can fill a tenis ball with black powder to blow a mailbox or something up, but it depends on the area you live in on whether like homeowners association or something will get mad at you for it or something

This is probably a little late but I'm 17 and I love blowing stuff up so I know a few things.. you could cut offf match heads and put them on a napkin and krush them to a fine powder it will take a lot of matches though and it is also really flamebount so keep it away from lights and such.. but after you crush a lot of match heads you can put the powder and a EMPTY Co2 contaner like ones for small bb guns and take a wick that will burn down to inside the co2 canister and light it then throw it it will blow like a fire cracker but it makes a lot more noise I thank that's rather fun.. then there is a little more know "bomb" take draino a 2 leater soda bottle and tinfoil just fill it up to like the bottom of the wrapper of the draino then put a little water in it then go to a mailbox (just an example probably not a good idea) put the tinfoil and the bottle put the top on quickly shake it up a bit then run fastly because its powerful enough to blow off something your son or you might need. And loud enogh to pop an ear drum.. but it will blow up a mailbox if you do want to destroy something along the way lol that's fun but a little more risky and probably more on the agienst the law side lol.. hope this helps.

Thanks. He's 17 now too, but I'm not sure I want him to do these things!
Tinfoil and drano? I didn't quite follow that. Maybe just as well. :)

Baking powder,vinger

Baking powder,vinger

Aside from your name, which is offensive, this is a thread from 2007.

Tick

Hey asking! I didn't notice that thread in the past, but I have an experiment that I have been myself been trying, and which does sound fun:

Making a 'mini-thunderstorm in a test-tube' :)

1. You put some concentrated sulfuric acid in a test-tube (good quality, just for safety, like Pyrex)
2. Carefully drop the same depth of pure ethanol on the sulfuric acid. If put slowly, there should be two separate layers of liquid.
3. Then, add a drop of potassium manganate (VII) in the tube (concentrated is better)

Watch the drop fall through the ethanol slowly, then through the sulfuric acid. Then, the sulfuric acid starts to react with the potassium manganate. The purple colour goes up now and goes once again in the ethanol layer, where it becomes cloudy. When the whole liquid is dark, you see that sparks appear now and then!

I think there is such a video on you-tube. I tried it at school, but apparently the reagents were not concentrated enough... :(

Hey you tried blowing up Gatorade? It is a lot of fun just do it outside. Put half coke and half Gatorade in the same bottle. Add a lot of salt screw on the lid and wait for it. The impurities in the coke react with the electro-lights in in the Gatorade. The salt is the catalyst.

Aluminum foil, hair spray, and Drano!! BOOOM

I like to animals while sucking a monkeys toe. With a side of deer urine. And a extra fried wewe from a deer and a baked photao.

Take a metalpipe form a highly enriched plutonium bullet put some other plutonium and fire the bullet into the plutonium it should make a explosion ps you might not want to do this if your not a nuclear scintist and if your son doesn't mind being vaporized also the neighbors might be angry with the mushroom cloud and nuclear fallout but its alout of fun and the kids will love it