The Magic of Chemistry: Highlights from BYU’s National Chemistry Week

Above: A vortex of fire is generated by burning alcohol in a metal dish surrounded by a mesh wire column.

National Chemistry Week, held during the week of October 23rd, is one of the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department’s biggest celebrations each year. Founded by the American Chemical Society (ACS) and co-sponsored locally by the ACS Central Utah chapter at BYU, National Chemistry Week gives our department a chance to help educate people on what work we do within our department, how chemistry impacts our everyday lives, and how chemistry can be fun.

Above: A vortex of fire is generated by burning alcohol in a metal dish surrounded by a mesh wire column.

One of our staples as a department is our chemical magic shows. For National Chemistry Week, our faculty perform several safe experiments as magic shows to invite families and students to campus to learn more about chemistry.

Dr. Harrison, one of our Inorganic Chemistry professors, performed his magic show on October 20th, 2025, the very first day of National Chemistry Week. His magic tricks ranged from exploding balloons filled with different gases to turning a clear solution into silver.

Dr. Harrison lights a small balloon filled with methane, creating an explosion. Other balloons filled with helium and oxygen produced much smaller reactions.

Dr. Harrison explains how both bottles, once filled with a clear solution, turn pink and blue when shaken because of their reactions with oxygen.

Dr. Harrison shows guests how a silver mirror can be made using the Tollens’ test: the Tollens’ reagent oxidizes the aldehyde or reduced sugar in the flask, while the silver ions in the reagent are reduced to metallic silver.

An experiment known as elephant toothpaste is shown to the crowd. Hydrogen peroxide and dish soap, when combined with potassium iodide, catalyzes and produces a large amount of oxygen. This causes foam to shoot up and out of the container, and the result appears like giant toothpaste.

Dr. Harrison and a student assistant drastically lower the temperature of balloons and other objects in a bucket of liquid nitrogen. The oxygen inside each balloon turns into liquid when reacting with the liquid nitrogen, resulting in the balloons shrinking.

Dr. Harrison and student assistants watch from a distance as the thermite reaction creates large sparks. Iron oxide and aluminum powder, when ignited with a magnesium strip, causes a large reaction that creates molten iron.

Thank you to Dr. Harrison, YChem, and all our faculty and students who participated in magic shows for National Chemistry Week. Please note that all experiments photographed in this article were done safely by trained individuals. Please do not attempt.

By: Sydney Gant

Photos provided by: Cambria Farr