How Do Fireworks Work?

Fireworks light up the night sky in colorful explosions - but how exactly do they work? Watch this video to find out, or read our explanation below!

Metal Salts Burn in Different Colors

Fireworks make the colors they make by burning special chemicals called metal salts Some metals burn brightly in different colors. Copper, for example, burns bluish-green. Lithium burns red, and calcium chloride burns orange.

Fireworks Pack Metal Salts Around Explosive Powder

The core of a firework consists of black powder, also called gunpowder. Its job is to explode. The black powder is surrounded by metal salts of different varieties, arranged by the person who built the firework (called a pyrotechnician), to produce whatever firework effect they want. When the black powder explodes, it simultaneously ignites the metal salts and blasts them outwards, creating the incredible colorful explosion.

Blasting Upwards

Fireworks usually have 2 separate bunches of black powder. The wick, which ignites both of them, burns through one before the other. The first one to be ignited by the wick is called the lifting charge. When it explodes, it shoots the firework upwards into the air, blasting it out of the directional tube called a mortar that the firework rests it before being ignited.