Create Your Own Biggest Bangs - Biggest Bangs - BBC Brit

Welcome to BBC Brit’s Biggest Bangs. This is a interactive experience where you get to mix dangerous chemicals with EXPLOSIVE results behind the safety of your screen.

Simply choose a chemical to start off with and then select a second chemical from the table to mix it with! Will it bang or won’t it? Let us know in the comments below.

You’ll need to have annotations enabled to get experimenting. For our budding chemists on mobile here are a few of our favourite reactions:

The reactions were ranked using the following, Biggest Bangs formulated equation: ΔHro / tr * z.
ΔHro is the standard enthalpy change of reaction (so the heat change during the reaction), tr is the duration of the reaction and z is the catalysis coefficient.

The “catalysis coefficient” (z) is basically our way of quantifying what was needed to get the reaction going – low for something like touch or exposure to light, higher for times when direct heating with a Bunsen burner was required. We then applied this equation to the results of our experiments, generating a ranked list of reactions with the top spot claimed by…well, no spoiling the surprise here of course.

Each reaction also has an estimation of the amount of energy generated per mole – a mole being a chemistry standard used to define an amount of a substance.

A big thank you to Bryson Gore; Dr David Mills (University of Manchester); Prof Andrea Sella (UCL); and Tracey Howard (Institute of Education, UCL)

[wethecurious]

Wow! This is brilliant! Engaging, informative, short & snappy, visually compelling... we won't admit to how long it took us to find the biggest bang though ;-)

[BBCEarthScience]

We love it! (clicks furiously to be the first to find the biggest bang)

[Misiecon]

Finally, I found this "Big Bang" ;)

[locouk]

Damn, I'm going to have to dust off the laptop.

[laurieison]

Disappointed that the winner is a bit of a trick question and not between two of the above chemicals.

[MyAvitech]

Took a few tries (7) but found it. Very interesting and fun little game.

[c_spawn]

Sadly, mixing of nitrogen and iodine would not give you nitrogen iodide as a result of reaction. Nitrogen iodide is synthesized by completely different reagents.
So it should be hydrogen and oxygen as #1.

[Mugetsuism]

Damnit, No.3 first time and No.2 after 2 more tries. Can't think of No.1 -.-

[nathanielpoate]

I like it, shame the ads are spoiling it by having to sit through them and wait... poor youtube advertising :(

[henteimaster]

is it just me or is the narrator from "Look Around You"?

[rainerzufall]

This is awesome, my first was #3 but i'm eager to do all combinations.

[gogreenhsb]

This is really cool.. A genius idea!! :)

[EthanCowlbeck]

at first i was sure it was #9, then i tried my second guess, and it was number 2. Took my about an hour of running through the periodic table. But I DID eventually figure it out.

[tyty]

Omg this is the best thing ever been invented

[Greedisgood-qyed]

Great guide on theme  "How to become popular in metro"

[CandyVenusIdol]

must be something wrong with my laptop, it wouldn't let me select anything and the annotations are on on my laptop ;n;

[wello]

Where the heck are all the subscriptions?

[PuppetMaster]

The buttons don't work anymore? I have annotations on but can't click anything :(

[lukespillane]

Ahhhh! I found the biggest bang. Like this if you found it too. No spoilers! :)

[ronzac]

I just got the number 2 for the second guess and number 3, a couple guess after. I'm really determined to experiment!! :D