Elemental Tales: Comic 4

Story by me

Art by

Elemental Tales Folder:  bakerchemi.deviantart.com/gall…

Elemental Tales Group:



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Real-life Chemistry Info for Comic 4:

There are many different kinds of sugars, but the ordinary white, powdered sugar that humans eat is called sucrose, or table sugar, or just plain "sugar" (C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁).  In the Elemental Tales series, to make table sugar, the characters Carbon, Hydrogen, and Oxygen magically shoot their atoms out of their hands.  The atoms combine in a ratio of 12 carbon atoms to 22 hydrogen atoms to 11 oxygen atoms, to make table sugar.

To make sulfuric acid (H₂SO₄), the characters Hydrogen, Sulfur, and Oxygen magically shoot their atoms out of their hands.  The atoms combine in a ratio of 2 hydrogen atoms to 1 sulfur atom to 4 oxygen atoms, to make sulfuric acid.

When you add sulfuric acid to sugar, it makes a really weird and freaky (but very cool) reaction!  The sulfuric acid dehydrates the sugar....that means it removes all the water (H₂O, the hydrogen and oxygen atoms) from the sugar.  It's a highly exothermic (that means heat-releasing) reaction, releasing heat, steam, and sulfur oxide fumes.  Soon, all that's left of the sugar is the carbon.  A huge, tall tower of pure black solid carbon grows out of the substance.

Here is the equation of the reaction:

C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁ (sugar) + H₂SO₄ (sulfuric acid) → 12 C (carbon) + 11 H₂O (water) + mixture water and acid

And here is a YouTube video of the reaction:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gG0UA…

(NOTE:  In this comic, the reaction happens very quickly (a few seconds), and the carbon tower grows straight up, because it's growing inside a deep tunnel, so the tunnel walls are tall enough to contain the entire carbon tower.  But in real life, the reaction happens very slowly (several minutes).  Also, the reaction is usually done in a beaker, and since a beaker's walls aren't tall, and so can't contain the entire carbon tower, the tower doesn't grow straight up.  Instead, it curves off to the side as it grows taller and taller.)

(NOTE 2:  I once wrote an Elemental Tales literature story about the similar theme of getting out of a deep hole by making a carbon tower.  The literature story only has Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Sulfur in it, though:
bakerchemi.deviantart.com/art/… )

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