Chapter 3
Jake looked at us like we were insane. "Where did you get the gunpowder?" He ran his hand through his curly dirty blonde hair, starting to get frustrated. "I thought we already talked about this whole explosion thing, Ruth."
Ruth, wearing protective goggles, frowned at Jake. “Parker brought the gunpowder, and we aren’t using it, Jacob.” She ushered us to the left side of the court. “Don’t worry about it.” She then went to Jake’s garage and brought out a water drum. “Roxy,” she glanced at me, waved her hand. “Please get the garden hose.”
While Jake asked Parker where he got the gunpowder, I walked to the side yard, took the garden hose that was attached to a faucet, let it hang on the opening of the drum, then went back to the grassy side yard and opened the faucet. After a minute, Ruth called out asking me to close the faucet.
“Now the liquid detergent.” Ruth squirted the detergent into the drum with a fourth of it filled with water.
Zach rolled his eyes, “We’re going to do laundry?” He deadpanned.
“You aren’t supposed to be here,” Parker told Zach, while the latter looked sternly at him. “Who invited you over?”
I furrowed my eyebrows for a second, what do these two have against each other? “Boys,” Ruth called out to them. “I need you to carry that tank over there,” she pointed at an oxygen tank in Jake’s open garage. “And bring it here.”
“What do you need that tank for?” Jake asked, his green eyes widening. Parker decided to make fun of it, “Pupils dilating – check. Eyebrows elevating – check.” This time Jake started frowning, Parker continued. “Oh, no. Eyebrows starting to knit together, corner of lips dragging down.” He turned to us, “confirmed. We’re driving him crazy.”
Jake sighed, looked up and groaned. “Shut up, Parker.”
After Parker and Zach brought the tank outside, Ruth and I started the experiment.
“What’s up with you today?” Zach nodded at Jake who was bending over to sit on the pavement. “What’s up with me?” He glared at Zach, “You break into my house, wake me up when I just started sleeping, ask me if I was awake, then pester me about Roxy. You’re asking me what’s up?”
Zach shrugged in response, “So?”
I shook my head and butted in, “He’s grumpy. He wasn’t able to sleep and you’re annoying him so he’s grumpy.” Zach shrugged again, “Your point is?”
Sighing, I thought about explaining it to him but decided against it since he wouldn’t want to hear a scientific one. “Just leave him alone.”
“Who invited you over?” Parker asked again. “Since when are you interested in experiments?”
“Am I not allowed to be here?” Zach said.
Sensing that there was a high chance they will be fighting, I interrupted. “Okay,” I clapped once. “Shall we start?”
Fortunately, this had the boys’ attention. “So,” Ruth turned the tank on, the gas making bubbles form in the water drum. “What’ll happen when I burn the bubbles, Zach?”
We all stood around the water drum and watched as a part of the bubbles rose. “Helium?” Jake asked. Ruth grinned, “Close.” Jake guessed again, “Methane?” Ruth chuckled, nodding.
“Where’d you get that?” Jake started asking. “When did you put in my garage? You never told me you had a tank of methane in my garage.”
“I keep things in your house, you know that.” Ruth answered. It was true. The orange extract in Jake’s fridge, for example. Also the liquid nitrogen Ruth used last year for Halloween. Jake’s and her house were like stock rooms for Ruth’s sometimes crazy experiments.
I held a long plastic stick and used it to ‘cut’ a part in the drum of bubbles. It rose in the air. “Zach, what’s your answer?” Ruth asked.
“It’ll burn,” Zach rolled his eyes. Ruth sighed, “Alright.”
All of us but Zach knew what’ll happen during and after the bubbles are burnt, obviously. Ruth held the long blow torch. “Can I be the one to light it?” Parker asked like an ecstatic 5-year-old. Ruth handed it to him.
I ‘cut’ a huge part of the bubbles, it rose in the air. “Light it up,” I told Parker. I think this alarmed Zach because he took a couple of steps backwards, away from the drum of bubbles. My very excited friend lit it up as it rose in the air.
The bubbles caught fire, and as it continue to rise in the air, it looked like we were summoning a beast or something since the gas was spreading out making the fire spread, too. The flame was showing were the gas was. Tiny droplets of water fell as all the bubbles burned.
Zach looked amused, Jake looked like he wasn’t grouchy anymore, and Parker, well, he was bouncing in his place. “Let’s do it again!” He exclaimed. “Bigger part of bubble this time,” he nodded at me eagerly.
Laughing lightly, I ‘cut' a bigger part and watched Parker light it. The fire was bigger this time we had to take a step back. “I have to say,” Zach started. “you guys aren’t as boring as I thought you were.”
Ruth glanced at him, “That isn’t much of a compliment.”
Parker, however, did not care about any of it. “That was awesome! It was like we were summoning a beast or something.” I turned to him, “That’s what I thought, too.” We laughed, and high fived.
Jake, being his serious self, asked Zach. “Why do you think it burned, Zach?” In response, Zach shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know anything about this.” Jake started explaining it while Zach started getting bored.
In our little ‘clique,’ expect Jacob to always be the one wanting to talk about the concepts and processes of how something happened, Parker being always excited when we try things even when we already tried it before – he’s a fun person, Ruth always craving to do experiments, and me.. I guess I just go with the flow. I mean, I get excited like Parker but I’m also sometimes hesitant about it like Jake, and I love experiments but not as much as Ruth loves it. I guess I’m the combination of the three of them.
We don’t just enjoy Science, though. We enjoy everything they can offer in school, and how we can apply it to real life.
“Can I sleep now?” Jake suddenly asked.
☁
Alkanes - saturated hydrocarbons
Combustion of Hydrocarbons
Methane gas is a hydrocarbon, and is commonly used as fuel for heating homes and for cooking. The molecular formula for methane is CH4 and has a relative mass of 16.
Methane undergoes combustion with oxygen when burned to give carbon dioxide and water. In fact, all alkanes react with oxygen to produce carbon dioxide and water.
CH4 + 2 O2 ---> CO2 + 2 H2O + heat + light
methane + oxygen -> carbon dioxide + water + fire
Combustion experiments are general conducted with a large excess of oxygen, so that the fuel (methane in this case) is the limiting reactant.
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