Pharaoh's snake | Hacker News Reader

Pharaoh's snake

youtube.com

77 pointsest24 comments

When I first looked at the title, I wasn't sure if it was going to be about chemistry or APL.

Also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Magic_Snakes

Just out of curiosity, what's the APL angle?

They edited the original title, which was the chemical formula for the reaction. At first glance, I really thought it was APL for a second (with all the symbols it had in the formula).

The original title was

    4Hg(SCN)₂ Δ= 4HgS + 2CS₂ + 3(CN)₂↑ + N₂↑

The moderators changed it.

That was unexpected.

If you haven't watched the video yet, do it now. Some cool juju.

When I was a kid there were cheap fireworks which I believe used a similar chemical. It was amazing to watch them grow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3aAksyabes#t=0m15s

I loved them too.

Most of these (at least now) are made of sugar and baking soda. They used to be made of mercury thiocyanate back when we didn't know mercury poisoning was trouble.

Ah, brings me back to the chemistry experimentation of my youth! :-)

I doubled this with the akira soundtrack: http://www.youtubedoubler.com/?video1=http://www.youtube.com...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharaohs_serpent

The traditional "Pharaoh's serpent" version of this firework produced a more impressive snake, but its operation depended upon mercury thiocyanate, which is no longer used because of its toxicity.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=327_1222010828

Video of mercury thiocyanate.

(Bad wikipedia link BTW)

pretty

This video is way better.

Stupid question: if Hg(SCN)₂ were heated evenly, will this produce fractal?

Not stupid at all, I'm wondering too. It does look self similar to some extent, but then again fractal is a word that's thrown around way too lightly.

I wonder if this could be harnessed to be used as some sort of physical force generator.

Why is this comment voted down to -3? Granted, his proposal might not be feasible, but at least he's thinking...if it wouldn't work, post a comment explaining why.

If what wouldn't work? It's a chemical reaction that produces some kind of foamy result. You can buy a can of foam spray at Home Depot that expands and could be used as a "physical force generator".

Now if someone could just make the untoxic version of this taste like cheese...

Any chemistry guys able to explain in detail how this works?

It's been a while but I could start to explain it and maybe someone can pick it up from my rusty memory.

Mercury thiocyanate, Hg(SCN)2, decomposes at about 165 degrees Farenheit[1] to elemental components. I would guess that the shape of the product in that video is most likely due to the gases that are formed (most likely cyanide and mercury gas). I'm guessing the products are sulphur, cyanide vapor and mercury vapor. I'm also guessing that there are some oxides of sulphur and nitrogen forming since oxygen is readily available.

[1]: http://cameochemicals.noaa.gov/chemical/1048

A safer experiment can be performed using baking soda and sugar, although I believe you've got to add a fuel to allow it to self-burn, but isopropyl alcohol should be all that's required. These produce 'black snakes' rather than the golden ones from this video. There's recipies online for the concoction, however you can pick up packs of a dozen or so 'black snakes' from firework stores.

They're non-explosive, so I don't imagine you'd have a hard time tracking some down if you wanted to see it personally.

Am I the only person who thought of Akira?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com