Why fireworks colorful

Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Share Flipboard Email. Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph. Chemistry Expert.

Helmenstine holds a Ph. She has taught science courses at the high school, college, and graduate levels. Facebook Facebook Twitter Twitter. Updated November 04, Featured Video. Cite this Article Format. Helmenstine, Anne Marie, Ph. The Chemistry of Firework Colors.

The Science Behind Firecrackers and Sparklers. Phosphorescence Definition and Examples. Chemical Element Pictures - Photo Gallery. According to LiveScience , when you light the fuse on the outside of the fireworks's thick tube, the flame ignites a pouch of black powder inside known as the lift charge, which causes the shell containing the stars to catapult into the air.

As it rises, a time-delay fuse begins to burn within it and, by the time it reaches its maximum height, the shell bursts, causing the stars inside to color each strand of the explosion.

Paul Nicholas Worsey, fireworks expert and professor of mining and nuclear engineering at the University of Missouri at Rolla, told LiveScience that red and green are the easiest colors to create, while blue is more difficult. Worsey says gold is best if you want your firework to keep its color for a long time, maybe even until it hits the ground.

The trick behind those especially crowd-pleasing fireworks that change color after they explode is simple: The stars are coated in multiple metal salts. Related: 5 dazzling facts about fireworks.

Each chemical element releases a different amount of energy, and this energy is what determines the color or wavelength of the light that is emitted.

For instance, when sodium nitrate is heated, electrons in the sodium atoms absorb the energy and get excited. As the electrons come down from the high, they release their energy, about kilojoules per mole a unit of measurement for chemical substances or the energy of yellow light, according to the website of the University of Wisconsin-Madison chemistry professor Bassam Z.

The recipe that creates blue includes varying amounts of copper chloride compounds. Red comes from strontium salts and lithium salts, and the brightest red is emitted by strontium carbonate, the ACA explained on their website.