00:00:09ingredients and a frying pan because
00:00:11today we’re doing some kitchen chemistry
00:00:13this is the type of cooking that gets me
00:00:15excited because I’m trying out recipes
00:00:17for solid state rocket fuel
00:00:22[Music]
00:00:35to get started I’m taking this portable
00:00:38electric burner outside and away from
00:00:39anything flammable I’ll add a frying pan
00:00:41and set the heat to medium-low this lid
00:00:44should help it heat faster and while
00:00:46that’s warming up I’ll place one of
00:00:47these plastic cups on a digital scale
00:00:49and turn it on when the scale is zeroed
00:00:51out the weight of the cup I’m ready to
00:00:53measure portions of these two
00:00:54ingredients the black bottle is a stump
00:00:56remover from the garden section of a
00:00:58local hardware store and I’m using it
00:01:00because it contains potassium nitrate
00:01:02and according to the MSDS it contains a
00:01:04lot of it the second ingredient is plain
00:01:07white table sugar and I couldn’t resist
00:01:08a little taste before investing it into
00:01:10this experiment okay this recipe calls
00:01:13for a 60/40 mix by weight and I’m gonna
00:01:15make a hundred gram batch so I’m adding
00:01:1760 grams of stump remover first followed
00:01:19by 40 grams of granulated white sugar
00:01:21that looks good there so I’ll give the
00:01:23couple a little shake and mix the two
00:01:24together and then try to pour it neatly
00:01:26and evenly into the preheated pan over
00:01:29the course of about five minutes I’ll
00:01:30need to stir the mix up a little so it
00:01:32doesn’t burn on the bottom not much
00:01:34seems to be happening yet but after
00:01:35about eight minutes I can see some of
00:01:37the sugar starting to caramelize into a
00:01:38liquid at this point I’ll need to be
00:01:40stirring and mixing a little more
00:01:42frequently and as I do the mixture
00:01:44begins to liquefy and clump together
00:01:45turning a golden brown just a couple
00:01:48minutes later the entire batch looks
00:01:49like cookie dough and the white powder
00:01:51is completely mixed in I’ll need some
00:01:53sort of container to hold this in and
00:01:55I’m thinking these mega block Legos
00:01:56might work at this point the mixture is
00:01:59just running enough that it can be
00:02:00slowly coaxed into the container it
00:02:02takes about 60 grams to fill this red
00:02:04block and when I’ve cooked up a little
00:02:06more I’ll add that to the blue one it’s
00:02:08darker in color because it cooked longer
00:02:10and generally speaking I think the less
00:02:12it’s cooked the better there’s just a
00:02:13little bit left over and it’s hot but if
00:02:15I’m careful I can roll it into a test
00:02:17piece for measuring the burn rate later
00:02:19on alright while those are cooling I’ve
00:02:21got one we can let off just to see how
00:02:22it looks I’ll get it started with a
00:02:24propane torch and when the fuel catches
00:02:26it throws off a nice little flow
00:02:27and quite a bit of smoke this mix is
00:02:30four months old and seems to burn a
00:02:31little slow but it’s still a good show
00:02:33and you can tell by the melting plastic
00:02:35that does get pretty hot okay I just
00:02:38made three more batches of fuel that are
00:02:40all a little different to the yellow one
00:02:42I added 30 grams of water and then turn
00:02:44the heat up to boil the water out after
00:02:46a couple of minutes the mix turned to a
00:02:48white mush and was ready when all the
00:02:50water seemed of cooked out this method
00:02:52prevented the sugar from caramelizing
00:02:53but it was a little crumbly when drying
00:02:55I packed that into this yellow Lego
00:02:57block and set it aside
00:02:59another batch was made using a mix of
00:03:0158% stump remover 29% sugar and this
00:03:04time I used 13% corn syrup and 30
00:03:07milliliters of water the water was
00:03:09cooked out the same way as the last and
00:03:10then about one gram of homemade rust
00:03:12powder was added and stirred in
00:03:14thoroughly when it was ready it looked
00:03:15like a creamy chocolate frosting and I
00:03:18packed that into the green Lego I may
00:03:20have accidentally trapped an air bubble
00:03:21inside you’ll see this explode later
00:03:23when we test it for my last batch I
00:03:26sprinkled some red rust into the mix
00:03:27while it was still wet and like the
00:03:29others stirred it until the water had
00:03:30evaporated out this mix kind of looked
00:03:33like a delicious red velvet cake but I
00:03:35wouldn’t recommend eating it I took
00:03:36samples from each fuel and measured them
00:03:38all to a length of one inch then time
00:03:40the burn rates to see how they performed
00:03:42against each other I was happiest with
00:03:44the batch made with my homemade rust
00:03:45because they burned the fastest
00:03:48I had a few sample scraps left over that
00:03:51we’re begging to be burned up so I did
00:03:53that and now here we are with five
00:03:55samples ready for admission testing the
00:03:57red one I’m really impressed at how fast
00:03:59it ignites and burns but a little
00:04:01nervous when it starts spinning out of
00:04:02control
00:04:03I’m out of here the blue one lights off
00:04:05just as powerfully and Bilt’s thrust the
00:04:07point where it takes off leaving me in a
00:04:11total whiteout this yellow one was the
00:04:13uncaring alized version and i got
00:04:14smarter this time by pointing it down to
00:04:16prevent it from taking off like the
00:04:18others
00:04:18it burns slower than the first two but
00:04:20the amount of smoke it put off was still
00:04:22incredible okay so this green one has
00:04:24the rust in it and it lit up instantly
00:04:26and then blew up but did you notice how
00:04:29much faster the burn rate was that’s
00:04:32amazing for the black one I decided it
00:04:35was a good idea to hold it in place with
00:04:36another cement brick and that strategy
00:04:38seemed to work at least this time I
00:04:40didn’t get sprayed in the face with
00:04:42spewing hot rocket fuel overall I think
00:04:44I’m happiest with these mixtures using
00:04:46the rust with a different homemade
00:04:48casing that actually has a nozzle I was
00:04:50able to get a successful rocket launch
00:04:51that I think went a couple thousand feet
00:04:53high well that’s it for this project if
00:04:56you like these videos please subscribe
00:04:57and share with your friends I appreciate
00:04:59your support thanks for watching
00:05:03[Music]
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