Flaming Dollar Experiment

Hope everyone had a great Easter. Luckily I have today off to catch up on homework before tomorrow 🙁

Oh well….it all gets done sometime. So I’ve been working on ideas for camp and I came across a super cool experiment you can do with stuff you have around the house! (Yes I’m the nerd that made my family watch the experiment but hey in my defense its super cool!)

Ok so, first this experiment involves FLAMING MONEY! (Insert Ooohs and Ahhhs) What part of that does not sound awesome?! I got the idea from ScienceFix. I remember doing this experiment though in grade school and just rediscovered. The video really explains the science behind it, but its great just to watch as well!!!

You can check out the video to watch it for yourself! I would have taken pics from all the times I tried it but my camera would not have really gotten the flames but trust me there is a WOW factor especially with the lights off.

All you need:

some denomination of money (the bigger the better 🙂

rubbing alcohol (isopropyl)

water

lighter

tongs

Soak your money in equal parts of rubbing alcohol and water (enough to cover, I used a 1/3 cup of each and had plenty of liquid left to keep using.

Let it soak (doesn’t matter how long, but the longer the better- couple minutes)

Use tongs to grab the money

Turn off the lights and light it!

See the cool blue flames where the alcohol burns but the bill is unharmed AND STILL COMPLETELY USABLE! I always like to check my experiments first and this one is so easy to do!

As always, an adult should be the one lighting the bill on fire and keep at an arm’s distance away from anyone. It is relatively quick experiment but can be repeated with the same bill and liquid if desired.

The video with a great explanation can be found here: http://www.sciencefix.com/home/?currentPage=3

Here is a FREEBIE to go along with the demo: check it out!