Dry Ice Fire Extinguisher | Fun brains Science Experiments

Make a model of fire extinguisher | Dry Ice fire extinguisher

Fire extinguishers are used for putting off fire and avoid disasters. Majority of fire extinguishers use carbon dioxide to put out fire. Dry ice is the solid form of carbon dioxide and that is the reason that we can make dry ice at home from fire extinguishers. If you keep dry ice in an open space, you will see that the dry ice gives out fog. The fog it produces is just the carbon dioxide gas. Here you will see the dry ice fire extinguisher.

Dry Ice Fire Extinguisher is an easy to do fun experiment by Fun Brains. However, the experiment uses dry ice and fire, so it must be performed only under the supervision of an adult. Dry ice can cause frostbite and you need to take proper precautions to handle it.

Try it yourself

You need:

  1. A candle
  2. A bowl or a glass (depending upon the size of candle that you are using)
  3. Matchbox or lighter
  4. Dry ice

What next?

The dry ice fire extinguisher is an experiment that can be completed in three steps.

Step 1:  Lit a candle and place it fixed inside a glass or a bowl. The height of candle should not exceed the depth of the container that you use.

Step 2: Crush some dry ice and spread it around the candle inside the container.

You will notice that the action you did in step 2 puts off the flame.

Step 3: Try to re-lit the candle using your lighter or a matchstick.

You will see that the matchstick or the lighter fails to lit the candle.

Why and how dry ice is able to put off the flame? If you want to know why and how the fire was put off, see our logic session below…

Logic of dry ice fire extinguisher:

Dry ice is fun to play with and there are several experiments that we can do with this solid carbon dioxide. However,  know that dry ice is solid form of carbon dioxide and carbon dioxide can encapsulate the flame and put off it. When you place dry ice in an open space, it will start subliming into carbon dioxide gas. Sublimation is the process through which dry ice changes its solid form to gaseous form. The carbon dioxide thus produced helps us to extinguish fire.

Also read: Baking soda and vinegar fire extinguisher

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