Thursday, July 4, 2013

How do fireworks work?

Fireworks_large

The first firework was pretty basic. A Chinese monk named Li Tian took a piece of bamboo, stuffed it with gunpowder, and threw it into a fire, producing a bang loud enough to scare away ghosts. That was more than 1,000 years ago, but fireworks today are much the same: a shell, an explosive, and a fuse.


The biggest changes in modern firework technology were driven by the demand for extravagant, sparkly displays on days such as the Fourth of July. American display fireworks tend to emphasize color in addition to sound, and audiences seem to prefer that the fireworks explode in the sky rather than on the ground.


Colors were incorporated into fireworks during the Italian Renaissance, when steel and charcoal were added to produce yellow and...


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via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2013/7/4/4489980/how-do-fireworks-work

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