14 DAY TRIAL // Not that playing with fire is ever a good idea, but just for the fun of it, here's a video explaining how to create rainbow-colored flames in the comfort of your own home using perfectly ordinary household materials that most people are all too familiar with.
For starters, you need some fuel. Apparently, methanol is your best choice, as this will guarantee your home-made flames will turn out the desired color and not look washed out.
Now for the fun part: to play the fire wizard and create flames in the weirdest of colors, all you need to do is mix chemicals with the methanol, then set them ablaze. Pretty straightforward, right?
“Lithium from batteries burns red, calcium chloride in Damp-Rid burns orange, sodium in table salt burns yellow, boron in roach killer burns green, methanol burns blue all by itself, and potassium in No-Salt burns purple,” TheBackyardScientist explains.
To get the full effect, you might want to wait until nighttime to set your concoctions on fire. That way, the colored flames will look even more spectacular. True, you'll probably terrify the neighbors, but it all seems worthwhile.
Oh, and just for the record, let it be known that only those who have a most basic understanding of chemistry and know exactly what they are doing should attempt to recreate this experiment at home. The rest should probably stick to watching this video on repeat.
