Gummy bears are delicious, but they’re also a favorite torture subject for scientists and the kind of people who will inevitably wind up on reality shows. But what happens when you put a five-pound gummy bear into chemical hell?
Explosions, fire, and lots of property damage, according to Vat 19’s test. By “test,” we mean they dumped the thing into a vat of boiling potassium chlorate:
This thing is 6,000 calories on its own, all of which are released at once. See, you boil potassium chlorate, and you get oxygen and potassium chloride. Add a wad of pure sugar to the mix, which essentially, aside from some flavoring and gelatin, all a gummy bear is, and you’ve got yourself a fireball. Add five pounds of sugar to it and… well, you get the point.
This will work on anything made out of sugar, by the way. Oh, and you can make this stuff at home, if you know where to look. We do not recommend giving this knowledge to children, unless you have a profound dislike for them and your property insurance policy is fully paid up. We recommend trying the slightly more safe uses Vat 19 found for their gummy bear instead.