GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Chemistry students at Calvin University celebrated Halloween with a bang Wednesday afternoon!
The school’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry detonated a line of pumpkins on the Commons lawn the day before Halloween. It was part of a yearly tradition held since 2019.
“We started with just a couple of pumpkins, and we never knew if it was gonna work,” says Prof. Chad Tatko. “And every year, it seems as though we've tried to take it a little bigger, a little better.”
Students learned about combustion reactions while exercising their creativity.
“This is an acid-based reaction, which then generates a combustible gas, which undergoes a combustion reaction,” Professor Tatko explains. “The reaction that we're using was used by miners illuminating lamps in the coal mines, where water would drip on calcium carbide, generating just a little bit of acetylene, and that would burn, giving them illumination.”
Don’t try this experiment at home! The educational display was made possible thanks to the safety and guidance provided by experienced faculty.
Watch the explosive tradition in action:
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