4th of July with Dry Ice

With record breaking triple digit temperatures and a pronounced lack of rain, my community banned all  4^th of July fireworks except for those that were being handled by the pros.

Here at Jones central, on our tower by the Sea of Monsters, 4^th of July is fairly low key, but we do typically get some sparklers and snakes and snappers and a few small fountains. It’s my son’s favorite holiday, and I think he was the most disappointed of the four of us. But he and my wife cooked up a backup plan. Some time last year my son had discovered an amusing science video out there on the interwebs, and he suggested we try the experiment out in lieu of fireworks. So, with an old plastic pretzel container, a tube, some soapy water, and some dry ice, we managed to amuse ourselves for an hour or so. It didn’t occur to me until after all the dry ice sublimated that we should have tried some food coloring. My science genius wife tells me it probably wouldn’t have worked, but some red and blue bubbles would have made the whole thing feel a little more patriotic.

Follow this link to see an official Boo Bubble demonstration from Steve Spangler science. Yeah, it really is that cool in person. We built our own bubble device, but this one looks pretty nifty.