— Posted in Entertainment
When He Placed A Red Hot Ball Of Nickel On A Block Of Foam, I Never Expected This To Happen!
Ever thought what could happen if you try placing a red hot ball of nickel on a block of foam? Well, until now I have assumed that if you’ll place anything hot on a matter, it will subsequently melt away or if it’s a cloth piece, it will just burn up! But foam is a gas dispersed in a solid, so, what can possibly happen?! Let’s figure it out in this video!
If you think it’s crazy to do that, indeed it is! But then, we’ll all kinds of experimenters who try doing random things, some of which are amusing in their own way and it is one of them, indeed!
It is not an ordinary foam, but a floral foam! So, what is a floral foam? The floral foam is a phenolic foam, which is basically expanded phenol formaldehyde resin that is formed by reacting, yes, you guessed it right, phenol with formaldehyde!
While usually, the polymers emit a lot of hydrocarbons upon heating, phenol formaldehyde is different! In the case of phenol formaldehyde, the chain reaction spreads slowly (hence the need for a time lapse) because phenol formaldehyde already contains a significant amount of covalently bonded oxygen (i.e. already partially oxidized), so less heat is released per mole of the polymer, which significantly reduces the speed of the chain reaction.
The byproduct of this reaction is char which serves as a sort of fire retardant, slowing the chain reaction by decreasing the amount of heat that reaches the untouched phenol formaldehyde. So, now, let’s head on to the actual video! I’m sure you’ll find it amusing!