On August 28th and September 11th, 2016, CCTV-1 scientific television programme ¡°Come on! To the Future¡± broadcasted two series of scientific experiments named ¡°Delicious Kitchen Explodes¡± and ¡°Food Rocket¡±, directed by the State Key Laboratory of Explosive Science and Technology of Beijing Institute of Technology.
Huang Guangyan, deputy director of the State Key Laboratory of Explosive Science and Technology, was invited as an expert to explain the relevant principles and scientific phenomena that involved in the explosions during the show. Wang Bo, Xiao Xiaobing, Lu Ying, etc., graduate students of Huang¡¯s lab participated in the design and implementation of the experimental program. Cui Xinyu and the show host Sa Bening gave a live demonstration of the experiment in the studio. After the broadcast of the program, the shocking experimental scenes and the amusing scientific theories made it a bright spot on the summer television screen.
The participation of "Come on! To the Future " show of The State Key Laboratory of Explosive Science and Technology, providing experimental guidance in such an interesting popular science show, is an embodiment of the laboratory's response to the national "innovation-driven development strategy" and the full implementation of the social responsibilities of the national research institutions. As an important research institute, personnel training and academic exchange base in China's explosive science and technology, the laboratory promotes ¡°science and technology innovation, talent cultivation, scientific popularization, and open service¡±, fosters nationwide youth science and technology talents cultivation, plays an important role in promoting the spreading of science and technology for explosion security.
As introduced in the¡°Delicious Kitchen Explodes¡± program, the corn flour, food alkali and yeast powder that commonly used in cooking delicious food at home. However, do you know that, the improper use of these items may cause Explosion? This round of experiments is to verify which item, the corn powder, food alkali or yeast powder, that used in the process of making corn bun can cause an explosion? The experimental results confirmed the tremendous power of the corn flour.
The underlying principle reveals that dust explosion is caused by rapid reaction of dust particle surface when in contact with oxygen. For the same quality, the smaller the particles, the greater the contact area is, and thus leads to more intense reaction. Therefore, after satisfying the exploding conditions, the smaller the dust particles, the faster the reaction can take place when in contact with oxygen. In the above three options, the food base is not flammable and therefore does not explode. Yeast powder, generally available on the market, is relatively coarse, thus the contact area ??with oxygen after dust formation is several orders of magnitude smaller than that of flour in the same quality. In general, no explosion will occur. Corn flour meets all the conditions for dust explosions, but the same quality of corn flour explosion power is not the biggest. Because the fineness of corn flour is relatively coarse, the monosodium glutamate (MSG), corn starch, potato starch, wheat starch, etc., which are common in the family, are even finer. At relevant conditions for explosion, the power of their explosion will be even more striking.
In the "Food Rocket" program, we question which substances, sugar powder, monosodium glutamate, or orange powder, that common used ingredient in the family, can fuel a rocket with the same amount of oxidant, and therefore make the small rocket fly farthest? The answer is white sugar.
The underlining principle reveals that the oxidant used in the experiment is just like our human body, can react quickly with simple chemical substance with chemical structure like the white sugar, release a large amount of gas in a short time and generate a high speed from the tail of the rocket. The ejection of the gas makes the Rockets moving forward and "fly". The sucrose content of orange powder is not as high as that in sugar, therefore its power as a propellant is not as big as sugar. Nutritionally, excessive intake of white sugar every day can be rapidly decomposed and absorbed in the human body, easily lead to illusion of fullness, and as a result to eat more food, leaving excess energy in the blood. The excess energy material will then convert into fat that causes obesity. A friendly reminder for everyone, is that, many science fans wasn¡¯t able to control the mixture proportion of sugar and oxidizer when homemaking rockets, which may result the explosion of rocket and get hurt. Therefore, although science is fun, please be careful when practicing!
Program links:
On August 28, the video link of the tenth "Delicious Kitchen Explode" pragram:
[Come on! To the Future] Maize Flour was the culprit causing the kitchen crisis.
http://tv.cctv.com/2016/08/28/VIDEU7xb9uYLV5JO3rSYBl28160828.shtml
Video link for the 11th issue of the "Food Rocket" program:
[Come on! To the future, which kind of fuel can make the rocket fly farthest, white powder, monosodium glutamate or orange powder?]
http://tv.cctv.com/2016/09/11/VIDEII9IwWVj5NjPMSR2OuhY160911.shtml
