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Television viewers in Denver woke up this morning to the sounds of exploding pumpkins. It was actually a new version of my self-carving pumpkin trick for Halloween. See the Exploding Pumpkin video that aired live on the NBC affiliate 9NEWS earlier this morning. It was great to see the news anchors scream! You can see more videos here.
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September 16th, 2005 at 2:07 pm
I am attending school as an education student, training to become an elementary teacher. One of our science assignments is to generate an expereiment that would get kids asking questions. My partner and I chose Halloween to present. I found your website and seen this experiment, and it got my interest going. However, I cannot find instructions on how to perform the experiment, what happens, and why it happens. Is there a place that I could find this information, as I would love to present to my fellow classmates this exciting experiment on Halloween. Thanks
September 16th, 2005 at 3:32 pm
Yes, this is a great demo… but for television! The explosion inside the pumpkin comes from the iginition of acetylene gas. I first learned of the demo from a Flinn chemistry workshop at a National Science Teachers Association convention. You might find a write-up at http://www.flinnsci.com
September 25th, 2005 at 11:11 am
I read your response to Kristina regarding the directions for duplicating “exploding pumpkins”.
I tried Flinn, to no avail. I would like to do this as a demonstration in our hands-on Science museum, DiscoveryWorks. Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
September 25th, 2005 at 10:39 pm
Here’s how I do it with my high school chemistry students: I put about 3 grams of calcium carbide in a metal can and the can goes down into the carved out pumpkin. The carvings (the face or whatever) is carefully put back into the front of the pumpkin. Water is added to can and the mixture allowed to react - the gas being produced is acytelene. There’s a hole in the back of the pumpkin big enough for an ‘aim and flame’ striker (one of those lighters). Put the lid on the carved out pumpkin and squeeze the striker - boom! Everyone wears safety glasses, of course.
October 25th, 2005 at 7:28 pm
I plan to try this demo in my Chemistry class. I’m a first year teacher and was wondering where do you do your demo?
October 26th, 2005 at 9:23 am
If you’re a first year chemistry teacher, I would highly recommend that you contact the great people at Flinn Scientific - http://www.flinnsci.com - before doing it. They might even sell a kit with all of the necessary safety precautions. My version of the demo was done in a television studio with many safety precautions in place. Contact Flinn! (800) 452-1261
November 1st, 2005 at 8:29 pm
Pumpkins float (in water) because they have a density less than 1.0 g/ml!
November 2nd, 2005 at 1:05 pm
thanks for telling me Jonathan
October 3rd, 2006 at 12:05 pm
Hello science enthusiasts!
I just wanted to mention that the Flinn has received several phone calls regarding this activity due to the reference on this forum. This demonstration was in fact presented by a teacher at the NSTA Morning of Chemistry, however, we do not have a ChemFax! written up for this demonstration. The amounts of calcium carbide vary depending on the size of the pumpkin used, and there is also an obvious safety issue. It really takes some perfecting to achieve a “perfect exploding pumpkin”.
Thank you for your comments Steve - keep up the great service you provide science teachers!
November 13th, 2006 at 4:03 pm
we did the exploding pumpkin in school during science. it scared the living day ligvhts out of me. it was loud. my scienc teacher did it with the other classes and it was done outside but we could her it from inside.it was asowem.
October 15th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
Is there another chemical i can use? i haven’t got any calcium carbide but would love to do this activity with my chemistry class.
October 30th, 2007 at 11:43 am
I am an AP Chemistry student who helped perform this experiment for my high school’s Safe Trick or Treat Night and we used an ISOPROPYL ALCOHOL mixture with PHENOLPHTHALEIN. It is highly more flammable, but the results are just as spectacular! Good Luck!
November 7th, 2007 at 9:16 am
I am a chemistry teacher and I want to do this experiment with ISOPROPYL ALCOHOL mixture and PHENOPHTHALEIN.Can You please guide me how much quantity of each is required?