Questions tagged [home-experiment]
For questions about a small-scale experiment which can be undertaken with reagents readily available around the house, while observing standard laboratory safety principles and practices. Do not confuse this tag with [everyday-chemistry] or [food-chemistry].
608
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Herbal cigarettes with no toxic ingredients [closed]
Is it possible to make herbal cigarettes which doesn't contain any toxic ingredients?
0
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0
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32
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Safely dilute this 35% hydrogen peroxide solution to 3% and store after opening (no stabilizer)?
The problem: eating yellow curry with naan and no spoon for the first time resulted in a wonderful dinner but some permanent yellow stain on my cotton shirt. I assume it's coming at least in part from ...
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0
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30
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Formation of crystals after distillation: Did I buy contaminated sulfuric acid?
I bought a gallon of dilute sulfuric acid (H2SO4) for car batteries (density 1275 or 29%) and I wanted to concentrate it to do some experiments like mixing it with sugar to make the black/carbon snake ...
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2
answers
127
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Influence of (activated) charcoal on water's pH
Does immersing (a) charcoal / (b) activated charcoal (both clean, no ash) into distillate water influences water's pH? If yes - in which direction - acidic or alkaline?
If there is an influence - is ...
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2
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1
answer
589
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Experiment to crush soda can by air pressure
You put a can with water at its base on a hot plate and allow the water to heat. Once steam is visible from the opening on top of the can, you quickly flip the can upside down into a bowl of water ...
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0
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15
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Questions regarding self-constructed calorimeter
I'm trying to use an self-constructed calorimeter (as shown in picture), which is constructed by two different size test tube and a stopper on the top.
I'm using this calorimeter to measure reaction ...
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6
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1
answer
148
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Creating non-brittle non-toxic verdigris (blue-green copper patina)
First off, I checked and there are indeed a number of questions on copper patinas, but none which deal with brittleness.
Context
I own a number of copper writing utensils, which I'd like to get a nice ...
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9
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1
answer
3k
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Why does my sand dissolve in citric acid?
I soaked and washed white Darice decorative sand in distilled water. I added food-grade citric acid to different distilled water, then I sprinkled in a few grains of the sand. The sand bubbled and ...
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1
answer
63
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Oxidation and Polymerization of drying oils
I am having trouble understanding the relationship between polymerization and oxidation of drying oils, specifically linseed oil used for fine art. In refining my own oil by filtering it then leaving ...
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1
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0
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38
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Is 25% aqueous ammonia solution considerably less safe than concentrated HCl
I plan to sterilize and clean some deer bones for display in my amateur chemical lab. The needed concentration of ammonia is only about 2,5% but it would be significantly cheaper to buy more ...
1
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0
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48
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Possible experimental errors and how to improve them
I'm doing an experiment at home where I determine the relative atomic mass of magnesium by collecting the hydrogen produced from its reaction with hydrochloric acid. I ended up getting around 26, but ...
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1
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0
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How can I safely recreate the "oxiclean effect" for a video production?
I am producing a parody infomercial, specifically copying the style of the early 90's OxiClean/Billy Mays spots:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTpXh33Mbeg
As it happens in the original commercial, ...
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3
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2
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829
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How can I test for impurities in my steel wool?
I am trying to purify ferrous sulfate (for some electroplating experiments) and I came up with the following process:
Dissolve 200g of iron fertilizer in 300ml of distilled water heated to 54 °C (...
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1
answer
217
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Will potassium nitrate and petroleum jelly work as a rocket propellant
I saw a post on a online forum that potassium nitrate and petroleum jelly could be mixed to create a rocket propellant. What is the reaction that would take place?
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2
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0
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45
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Improving accuracy of water lead test
Home water tests for lead have an accuracy of about 15 ppb. If I first do a gentle/slow boil for one hour (hot plate under a glass beaker of water) to reduce 2000 mL to 20 mL, will I then effectively ...
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1
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Safely removing sodium hypochlorite crystals from hard-to-reach surfaces
I have a small bathing whirlpool which wasn’t used for over ten years. It is built into the ground and I cannot reach the disinfectant container to replace it with a new one. I can access the fill-...
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0
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Urea to oxides of nitrogen in single step?
There are plenty of ways to get ammonia from urea, then oxidize that, but is it possible to get any of the nitrogen oxides directly?
Electrochemical methods would be nice, but as a amateur chemist I'...
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0
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52
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Labs without equipment - virtual chem lab?
I am an "international online" high school student with very spotty access to chemistry lab materials needed for some chemistry assignments I am being given. I would like to know if there ...
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1
answer
127
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Does the boiling point of ammonia hydroxide change with the ratio of water to ammonia?
My kids and I are designing a science experiment and we could use help with the ratio of water to ammonia in an ammonia hydroxide mixture.
A little bit of background:
Initial goal: To convert the ...
3
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0
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72
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Can shop-bought caustic soda be used to measure titratable acidity of wines?
When making wines, it's occasionally necessary to measure the wine's 'titratable acidity' (TA). To do this, a 0.1N solution of NaOH is titrated with a wine sample. 0.1N NaOH solution can be purchased, ...
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3
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2
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228
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Why is my battery of galvanic cells not enough to power a lamp rated for a lower voltage than the battery provides?
I made a series of 12 galvanic cells with saltwater as an electrolyte and zinc and copper as electrodes. It produces 8.8 V, but it can't even light a 2.5 V bulb (the bulb can be lit by a 1.5 V source)....
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2
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0
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Connect glass tubes to a graham condenser
I am currently making a syphon coffee maker such as this one:
However, I find that all the silicon tubing used on this image between the condenser and the boiling flask / between the condenser and ...
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2
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0
answers
118
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How can I heat up a separatory flask?
I currently am working on a vacuum brewing system for coffee (which is not super useful but pretty cool I have to say) such as this one (image).
However I wondered if there was a way of pouring the ...
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2
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1
answer
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Old sodium hydroxide based drain cleaner become stony and brown, not hydrosoluble anymore
My drain was clogged and I used an old sodium hydroxide based drain cleaner to free it. The cleaner was quite old and inside it was brownish and monolithic, not a bunch of small white spheres anymore.
...
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2
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75
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Inhibitors reaction at home
For a school science project, my teacher asked me to find a reaction that can be slowed down with an inhibitor and film it at home/lab at school. He told not to use lemon on an apple or anything ...
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1
answer
215
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Impurities in household baking soda
For a long time, I have been using store bought baking soda (with sodium bicarbonate as the sole ingredient listed) as the sodium bicarbonate in my (qualitative) home experiments, but recently I ...
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1
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0
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53
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Relative Humidity inside a thermally insulated chamber for a NACL solution
I ran an experiment, where I had to measure the relative humidity of a thermally insulated chamber containing NaCl solution. I have read from a few papers, that the relative humidity of a NaCl ...
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1
answer
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HCl labeled 31.45% concentration (20° Baume) [closed]
Just bought a standard concentration of HCl solution. The 31.45% is weight-by-weight & not weight-by-volume, correct?
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7
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5
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How can I roughly measure a fraction of a gram?
My son got a crystal making kit (from a relative) and it lists seed crystal weights of 0.5g for a small crystal solution and 0.75 g for a large crystal solution. The trouble is I (his father) don't ...
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3
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2
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220
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Producing hydrogen sulfide—difficult to do much?
When I was young (nearly sixty years ago), my "chemistry set" taught me how to heat sulfur and candle wax to stink up the house. It had no warning that hydrogen sulfide is toxic and ...
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2
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1
answer
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Suppressing flammable foam formation in electrolysis
I often use electrolysis to remove rust and other junk off of steel parts. My general setup is:
Electrolyte: Sodium bicarbonate + distilled water.
Anode: Plain carbon steel
Cathode: Carbon steel, ...
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1
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Spilled denat. alcohol (5% methanol) [closed]
I spilled a small amount of denatured alcohol (~3ml) on my skin and table while prepping microscope slides for springtails. The bottle says its 95% ethanol, with unspecified amounts of isopropanol and ...
1
vote
1
answer
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Can large, sticky, sodium polyacrylate crystals be coated in a powder to facilitate handling?
I am separating a larger container of sodium polyacrylate crystals into smaller containers for student experiments. Commonly known as "Deco Cubes" and used by florists in decorations and ...
1
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0
answers
306
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Is shampoo or soap a better emulsifier? [closed]
Made homemade shampoo using:
Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS)
Glycerin
95% ethanol
Sodium stearate
Made homemade soap using:
20% sodium hydroxide
Vegetable oil
95% ethanol
20% sodium chloride
...
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1
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0
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49
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Converting dissolved chromates to solids for disposal
I have 4 liters of electrolysis waste that was used to process stainless steel cathodes.
About half of it was oxalic acid based and the other half was sodium bicarbonate based (currently stored ...
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1
vote
2
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403
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Can ferrous ions exist in an acidic solution?
Can Fe2+ ions exist in an acidic solution or will they always pick up available protons and become Fe3+? My hunch is they can't exist but I'm not really sure.
If the latter, does that mean that ...
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2
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0
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258
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What factors have the greatest effects on the yield from steam distillation of ginger?
I have a modest home lab setup that I use primarily for steam distillation of plant matter to extract essential oils. My yields are typically at or below the low end of estimates given by different ...
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3
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0
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286
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Understanding electrolysis w/ oxalic acid electrolyte, iron electrodes
I've been experimenting with electrolysis for rust removal, electroplating, de-plating, etc. Right now I have a rust removal setup with carbon steel electrodes and a solution of oxalic acid in ...
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1
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90
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Attempting to make Rochelle salt but obtained paste
I was attempting to make Rochelle salt by adding sodium carbonate to a mixture of cream of tartar and water, but ended up with a solid paste. I kept the cream of tartar/water mix boiling the whole ...
11
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2
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161
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Peak in beer freezing temperature plot
I left an open beer in the freezer while monitoring its temperature. The first minutes works as expected. But after the plateau, at about −8 °C, a peak appeared:
I thought it was an artefact because ...
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1
answer
710
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Reaction between sodium hydroxide and silicon dioxide [duplicate]
I was trying to make sodium silicate according to the following reaction:
$\ce{SiO2 + 2NaOH -> Na2SiO3 + H2O}$
I used colloidal silica available as an intestinal adsorbent since reaction with ...
0
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1
answer
258
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Sodium acetate stoichiometry from baking soda and vinegar
I want to make sodium acetate from sodium bicarbonate and vinegar. I'm a bit stumped at calculating amounts of each reagent. I'm starting with 8% acetic acid vinegar. I was going to add, to 1 L of the ...
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1
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For home chemistry purposes can you treat sodium percarbonate as sodium peroxide?
It is easy to find home chemistry experiments for sodium peroxide but not so much sodium percarbonate. Industrially sodium percarbonate is used a sodium peroxide source- it is close enough to used as ...
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How do I get calcium citrate to precipitate in experiment on extraction of citric acid from juice?
I was planning to extract citric acid from mango juice by first using Aspergillus niger fungus by fermentation to convert the mango juice to citric acid, then extracting by first adding sodium ...
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1
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484
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Heating NaOH solutions
I am trying to determine the best heat at which to use an NaOH solution to clean a textile fiber. This is being done, carefully, in Asian villages.
The raw material is ribbons of bark peeled from a ...
2
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1
answer
149
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Looking for a compound that when mixed with sugar will burn when a drop of water is added
Years ago, I watched a Johnny Carson episode where a guest on the show mixed a compound with ordinary table sugar and added a drop of water and the mixture burst into flames. I went and bought the ...
1
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0
answers
275
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What is an effective preservative for guar gum slime?
I am attempting to find an effective preservative for guar gum slime. I am using typical recipes:
A borax solution of 4%, a guar gum solution of 5% using distilled water, and a mix ratio of 20:1 (guar ...
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1
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0
answers
86
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How to melt and roll silver chloride into sheets
I want to make silver chloride cathodes for a magnesium salt water battery.
Are there any tips on how to proceed?
I hope to melt the silver chloride in a covered ceramic crucible in an electric ...
1
vote
1
answer
70
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How to evolve hydrogen from aluminum when the household drain cleaner is safe to use on aluminum?
I live in Japan. I would like to evolve hydrogen to demonstrate to my son buoyant balloons (we have helium aerosol cans here which barely fill one balloon). There are drain cleaners here with low ...
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1
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3
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224
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Safe chemical reactions to start a campfire [closed]
I'm looking for a way to start a small fire electronically with widely available chemicals. It would be great if they are safe to use with metals (not necessarily). But the biggest requirement is that ...
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