now, of course, we will no longer be allowed to take gummi bears on airplanes...

You fiends!! You... You... You... DICK CHENEYS!!!

how many gummis will fit in a quart-size ziplock...

That was one of my dad's, high school chemistry teacher, favorite experiments to perform for his chemistry classes.
Very cool!

Something fun I actually did with gummi bears as a kid: Drop one in a big glass of water. Leave it in there for a day or so. It will grow and grow until it fills the whole glass!

Lumpi, that's how they make Aerojel :)

LOL that was hilarious! I expected it would melt and turn weird colours or something. What a reaction! :D

So don't let your kids eat Gummi Bears when they're playing with molten potassium perchlorate.

You can try that science mumbo jumbo with the other peons, but I know that reaction is a result of Satan being released from his natural sucrosey habitat.

awwwwww, poor gummi bear! Where are animal rights activists when you need them? Isn't this a veiled suggestion toward animal cruelty? (Dear Lord, please know I'm kidding; never know with these teabagging wackos on the loose packing heat & dreaming of doing Beck & Limbaugh in a threesome)

That gummy bear was screaming!

As for suggestion, do they need to be Saturday Morning Chemistry Experiments, or can they be Saturday Morning Physics Experiments?

I'm waiting for Saturday Morning Genetics Experiments...

Not to supersede whatever videos may appear in future episodes of SMSE, but if you like science, physics and chemistry I suggest you check out the following three YouTube channels that come from the University of Nottingham:

http://www.youtube.com/user/periodicvideos
http://www.youtube.com/user/sixtysymbols
http://www.youtube.com/user/nottinghamscience

Absolutely my favorite YouTube channels out there which are criminally underwatched. PeriodicVideos is exactly that, each video about a different element on the Periodic Table and experiments that explain each one. SixtySymbols is all about explaining hard-to-grasp physics and astronomy terms and theories. NottinghamScience is a behind-the-scenes look at Nottingham University's science departments.

Intense.

"The reaction is said to be product-favored." Arnold, eat your heart out.

I'm thinking any saturday morning biology experiments that would pass the yawn test would be unethical, illegal, or both. I could be wrong, tho...

Which brings up the question of whether it's ethical to use gummi bears in such experiments. Stop the sucrose slaughter!

Gummi Bears,
Combusting here and there and everywhere,
Molten potassium chlorate that's beyond compare,
We are the Gummi Bears!

Of course, I don't mind experimentation on gummi worms. They're not mammals.

jjasper: Hehehehe!

The bright blue flame indicates this was a particularly sweet donut.

in related news:

http://illusion.scene360.com/wp-content/themes/sahara-10/submissions/jason_freeny_02.jpg

the sound… I will never forget that horrific sound...

Looks like there a lot of energy release in that reaction there. We should make a gummi-bear powered car.

My 10-year-old started with COOOOOOL! and ended up with "they're murdering gummy bears"....which transitioned into -- whoa, look at the chunks flying out of the test tube!

I'm so proud of my little geek.

Bring on more videos!

I embiggened it for you:
http://chopsueyblog.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/anatomie_gummi_bar_by_freeny.png

I never knew those little bears could scream so loud... why don't they do that when being eaten?

because they like to be eaten

Thank you for the links, they're fantastic! I've never learned so much about candles...

They hibernate in your colon!

Hmmm. . .isn't KCl what most states use for lethal injections? Course anyone who could get potassium chlorate would probably know that already.

Wife: The gummy bear will get the same reaction in your tummy, just less exotermic.

Potassium Chlorate?

Can you even obtain that anymore without getting on a watch list?

Foolish loosely science-based Sky show Brainiac had an excellent little section in this vein, called 'Will it Fizz, or will it Bang?'

Oh the ursinity!

The movie "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" has an excellent malign gummi bear death montage.

I wonder how a giant gummi bear that'd been soaking in water for a day would taste.

I think that's an experiment I'll be skipping. Although I dare someone to do it and post video. :P

I... (wait, "don't cuss"? That's new. Crap.) ...umm, fscking hate Eric Fscking Baum.

Soak gummy bears in vodka. For a week (it takes a whole week, and you must cover & refrigerate & stir on occasion).
They double in size. And wonderfulness.

Alcoholic gummi bears. Oh my, WANT.

Part of me wants to buy one of these giant 5 pound gummy bears from here (http://www.vat19.com/dvds/worlds-largest-gummy-bear.cfm) and dump it in a pool of molten potassium chlorate and see what happens.

Sekino, if your "What a reaction" was a nod to Don Showalter in the World of Chemistry videos, you win my person of the week award. You don't really get anything for the award, but I will think highly of you until distracted by something shiny...

Bluecobra: just don't drop it in the sea...

KCl is Potassium Chloride

KClO3 is Potassium Chlorate

@Legless_Marine:

You can't even mention potassium chlorate on a blog without getting on a watch list.

What a horrible deathshow!

Holy ursine jell-o grenade, Batman!

Not sure if I was seeing that correctly, but... was that reaction actually giving off *light*?? Way, cool!!

it's like life sped up.