The Chemistry of Fireworks

Students will listen to Music for the Royal Fireworks by George Frideric Handel (commissioned to celebrate the signed Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1749) and design a virtual fireworks display to accompany the music. Students will learn that the specific colors in a firework display are created when atoms of a particular element or a combination of elements are energized by the firework's heat. They will learn that the shape of the firework display is determined by the shape and structure of one particular component inside the firework shell. They will discover that each component of a firework has a role in the timing, sound, and visual display that make up a firework, and how to coordinate the fireworks display with a musical tract.