Colorful Flames
Reuben Barnes
448 North Skylane Dr.
Durango, CO 8103
December 16, 2013
Bob Thom/Manager
ACE Hardware
8 Town Plaza
Durango, CO 81301
Dear Mr. Thom:
One of my families’ favorite things to do during the winter is huddling around a fire with a nice cup of hot chocolate and staring into the crackling flame. Your company provides the wood that people can buy to warm up their houses and you help create that happiness; however I would like to try and improve it. This idea will make the holiday a little more colorful and people will forge a memory that they will want to experience over and over using the product that I wish to advise you about.
My idea is to soak logs of wood in certain salt solutions that create a color when they are heated up by fire. For example the following salts make a red spectrum (Lithium Chloride) while this chemical creates a green flame (Copper2 Chloride). If one block was soaked in one of the chemicals that create a red flame and the other log of wood is soaked in the chemical that creates a green flame then when they are burned together a breathtaking sight will take place. I am estimating that if each one of the logs were soaked in the salt solutions for a whole day at least and then dried out; then I believe that a different colored flame will be visible until the salt solution is no more. Now if this were to be applied with the logs I would personally suggest that they were sold in a group of four, so two would be green flame and the other two would create the red flame.
This whole process happens because each atom has rings, and the electrons can move between these rings. When the atom is heated up this excites the electrons and they start traveling between the rings like crazy, now when they move back down to the bottom ring it creates a spectrum of light. That light is the different color of flame, now the reason for there being different colors is because different atoms have different amounts of rings so they therefore will have a different spectrum of light emitted. The salts that I am proposing you use are non-lethal unless ingested and will not affect a person due to contact with skin.
I have already taken certain steps to help ensure that the project will work and also benefit your company. Such steps included taking woodchips and then soaking them in a smaller amount of the salt solutions. I decided to do this multiple times and soak the woodchips for different periods of time. Once they were done soaking for however I would burn them with a blowtorch. The most successful test that had the best results was when I soaked the woodchips for an entire day. The result was a very clear change in the color of the flame and it helped me believe that if logs of wood were soaked in larger amounts of the solutions for a longer period of time then the outcome would be satisfactory.
I hope that this idea is taken under consideration and I do believe it will benefit your company greatly and people will be able to enjoy the holidays with this unique idea.
Sincerely,
Reuben Barnes,
Animas High School Student.
448 North Skylane Dr.
Durango, CO 8103
December 16, 2013
Bob Thom/Manager
ACE Hardware
8 Town Plaza
Durango, CO 81301
Dear Mr. Thom:
One of my families’ favorite things to do during the winter is huddling around a fire with a nice cup of hot chocolate and staring into the crackling flame. Your company provides the wood that people can buy to warm up their houses and you help create that happiness; however I would like to try and improve it. This idea will make the holiday a little more colorful and people will forge a memory that they will want to experience over and over using the product that I wish to advise you about.
My idea is to soak logs of wood in certain salt solutions that create a color when they are heated up by fire. For example the following salts make a red spectrum (Lithium Chloride) while this chemical creates a green flame (Copper2 Chloride). If one block was soaked in one of the chemicals that create a red flame and the other log of wood is soaked in the chemical that creates a green flame then when they are burned together a breathtaking sight will take place. I am estimating that if each one of the logs were soaked in the salt solutions for a whole day at least and then dried out; then I believe that a different colored flame will be visible until the salt solution is no more. Now if this were to be applied with the logs I would personally suggest that they were sold in a group of four, so two would be green flame and the other two would create the red flame.
This whole process happens because each atom has rings, and the electrons can move between these rings. When the atom is heated up this excites the electrons and they start traveling between the rings like crazy, now when they move back down to the bottom ring it creates a spectrum of light. That light is the different color of flame, now the reason for there being different colors is because different atoms have different amounts of rings so they therefore will have a different spectrum of light emitted. The salts that I am proposing you use are non-lethal unless ingested and will not affect a person due to contact with skin.
I have already taken certain steps to help ensure that the project will work and also benefit your company. Such steps included taking woodchips and then soaking them in a smaller amount of the salt solutions. I decided to do this multiple times and soak the woodchips for different periods of time. Once they were done soaking for however I would burn them with a blowtorch. The most successful test that had the best results was when I soaked the woodchips for an entire day. The result was a very clear change in the color of the flame and it helped me believe that if logs of wood were soaked in larger amounts of the solutions for a longer period of time then the outcome would be satisfactory.
I hope that this idea is taken under consideration and I do believe it will benefit your company greatly and people will be able to enjoy the holidays with this unique idea.
Sincerely,
Reuben Barnes,
Animas High School Student.
The materials of chemistry have shaped our past, present, and future for generations as people continue to create new things with this knowledge. For example scientists who continuously learn and research the materials of chemistry create a new item or invention that will benefit our society in some way or form. Not only are things getting created each day but they are then getting modified so that they are better and more advanced than before. A great example is technology in games, each generation there is a new console that is much different than the one before, the newer one is made up of different materials which allow it to be better than its earlier generations. The newer generations also have items inside that allow everything to work smoother and faster than before. The chemistry of materials have always and will always be in our past, present, and future and they will continue to benefit our society.
All of these different materials and improvements have a unique kind of structure that allows them to be what they are. The structure of matter that an item has can be either atomic, molecular, microscopic, or macroscopic. For example there are some properties of metals that make them useful in today's society. Metals have very low melting points which then makes it malleable and they conduct electricity and thermal energy. If we did not have this knowledge today then it would be totally useless and we would not be able to do al of the wondrous things with metal.
All of these different materials and improvements have a unique kind of structure that allows them to be what they are. The structure of matter that an item has can be either atomic, molecular, microscopic, or macroscopic. For example there are some properties of metals that make them useful in today's society. Metals have very low melting points which then makes it malleable and they conduct electricity and thermal energy. If we did not have this knowledge today then it would be totally useless and we would not be able to do al of the wondrous things with metal.