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How Fireworks Work By:Milen Patel 2012 Fireworks are commonly used to celebrate events such as the Fourth of July, your birthday and any other special events. It works when you light a fuse and a few seconds later you look up in the sky and there are some amazing colors. You probably think that fireworks are really basic but it is more advanced than you think. There are many kinds of fireworks but I’m going to mainly focus on the kind that go up into the air. The firework goes up into the air so fast because of air resistance. Many things affect fireworks such as temperature. For example if there was going to be a firework show that day and it starts to rain heavily or even lightly the show would most likely be cancelled. Even if it was going to be cancelled in theory you or another person could light their own firework. The reason people dont light fireworks in the rain is because rain or hail could hit it and cause it to malfunction and it could explode shoot the colors down or something dangerous could happen and someone could get hurt. Anyway, why would some one even want to set off a firework in the rain, its common sense people already know that they could get hurt and the rain would interfere with what the firework looks like. Even though fireworks can be dangerous if someone uses it incorrectly but overall they are really enjoyable! In this paragraph I'm going to tell you how fireworks work, a little history about them and some contents that are inside them.

As you probably know a firework is set off when a person lights it and in a few seconds there is a display in the air. That wire like object that you light is called a fuse. A fuse delays the time you have before the firework explodes. These are a safety precaution because the person who lights it needs to move away incase something goes wrong with it. Once you light the fuse as it is burning you won’t see much but it is getting very hot. But once it is done burning what happens next? In a firework there is gunpowder and black stars. A black star is a ball of any color that when it is mixed with enough heat it explodes into the air and releases the color that it is. Back to the fuse, there are many black stars in a firework depending on how many colors you see in the sky. In the photo above there are about 4 colors but that doesn’t mean only 4 black stars because there are about one hundred circles of each color so there is not one hundred but there are more. So when you light a fuse and it hits the ends it starts to burn the gunpowder and the heat travels to the black stars through the gunpowder and there is still enough heat to set off the black stars.

There are many kinds of fireworks but you may not even refer to them as fireworks. You might call them sparklers, bottle rockets or any other kinds of fireworks. Actually, fireworks and sparklers have a lot in common. The main part is that the firework has a fuse that you light and the sparkler is pretty much a fuse. The sparkler is a fuse because you light it and it burns to the other end and in theory it could set something off. Another thing that they have in common is that the end is very hot so don’t touch them. But they also have differences one is that the sparkler takes way longer to burn than a firework. And another is that fireworks go up into the air and sparklers are held a few feet in the air. Overall, fireworks are very alike to sparklers. If you would like to learn some more about fireworks click here for someone elses page on fireworks.

A little history about the Firework: In the 7th century the firework was invented in China. They were used to celebrate events in China but slowly started to spread to different cultures. China produces and sells the largest amount of fireworks than any other country.

Glossary:
 * Black Stars**: In the inside of a firework and are what makes the colors in the air
 * Fuse**: The wire like object that when is lighted ignites the firework
 * Gunpowder**: wood like shaving that are used to pass heat in a firework

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"**fireworks.**" //Compton's by Britannica//. //Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition//. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2012. Web. 24 Sept. 2012.

Marshall Brain, “How Fireworks Work.” HowStuffWorks. Discovery, 1998-2012, Web. 9/24/12

Marshall Brain, ‘How Stuff Works,’ New York: Hungry Mids, c2001. Print.

Mcgraw-Hill Companies, ‘The Nature of Matter.’ Columbus,Ohio:National Geograpic Society, 2002. Print

Wikipedia contributors. "Fireworks." //Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia//. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 27 Sep. 2012. Web. 27 Sep. 2012.