Orange Peel Fireworks Experiment

• Thick orange peels

• 1 candle

• 1 lighter

Note: Close adult supervision required.

1. Light a candle. Keep your child away from the open flame at all times.

2. Hold an orange peel near the flame and squeeze hard. Observe the short burst of fireworks!

When you squeeze the orange peel hard, tiny droplets of flammable essential oils are squirted out. These create flashes of bigger flames!

Your orange peel has to be thick. Mandarin oranges with soft, thin peels don’t count. It won’t work if you use a lemon either, we tried.

The bright orange part of the peel should be facing the flame. You just want the orange peel, not a slice of the orange, or things will get really juicy.

Younger kids might try to blow out the candle before you can even squeeze the peel, so it helps to explain what they should be looking out for or expecting.

Prepare a few orange peels, because your kids will want to do this experiment again, and again! In fact, they would want to try squeezing the peel themselves.

We would suggest that you stand behind your kid, hold on to the part of the peel nearer to the flame, with your kid holding on to the part nearer to him/her, and squeeze hard together!