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Fireworks: How do they work exactly?

Occasions like Bonfire Night, New Years Eve, Diwali and the Fourth of July weekend are marked by fireworks displays every year.

But the flare and skill of fireworks today wouldn't exist, without some simple, but clever, chemistry.

So how do fireworks work exactly? How are they made – and how do they get their different colours?

The Royal Society of Chemistry's Dr Joanna Buckley invited the BBC to the chemistry laboratories at the University of Sheffield to take a closer look at the science behind fireworks.

Video by Laura Foster

3 November 2018

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