Gummi Bear Surprise

Wow, that looks like it could be a blast!

I assume that “Gummi Bears” are similar to British “Jelly Babies”?

We Brits call gelatine containing desserts and confectionery, “jelly” – and the fruit based conserves that you call “jelly” we call “jam” (tomar-toes, tomate-toes … let’s call the whole thing off!)

Anyway, I suppose that the explosive effect of gummi bears comes from the sugar that they contain. In my youth every English schoolboy knew that it was unwise to mix chlorates and sugar – that didn’t stop some of them from trying it – and some of them from losing fingers!

In the absence of powerful oxidising agents (e.g. chlorates) I would imagine that gummi bears/jelly babies are perfectly safe.

Yes, Walter, I think that we’re probably talking about similar items of confectionery.

I’m assuming that it’s an aqueous solution of potassium chlorate in that test tube (the sound is not working on my computer at the moment – so I missed any commentary)? Heating the solid salt with a gummi bear would have distributed minute fragments of the tube, moving at high speed, all over the lab!
A colleague of mine once heated a mixture of perchloric acid and soap in a test tube once – the results were very loud and spectacular. It’s a very good job that the tube wasn’t sealed!