So last week the papal conclave met to elect a new pope.

What happens is the cardinals of the Catholic Church get locked into the Sistine Chapel.

Um, not allowed out alone any contact with the outside world until they've elected a new pope.

They have four boats every day after each vote.

They born all of the ballots, but they add some chemicals to make the smokey the white or black white.

If we have a new pope or black, give it its own successful, then we have to go through another vote.

So we have here all of the ingredients to make either black or white papal smoke.

We have lacked Tose.

We have an Tracee.

We have potassium chlorate, sulfur, and we have potassium chlorate on.

We've got some pine resin, which is this stuff here which comes out of a tree.

So let's start with black smoke.

We're gonna have an unsuccessful vote, so we need some sulfur.

We need so potassium chlorate.

And we need some unforeseen.

You can imagine.

We've counted up the ballots.

We don't have a majority vote.

Um, we're gonna born all the ballots.

Whatever mixture of chemicals tell the people waiting outside that we don't have a pope.

Here it comes.

Beautiful.

Let's go.

So in our in our chimney here, we've got some pretty good black smoke.

In previous years, there's been a little bit of trouble.

There's been some doubt about the color of the smoke.

I think in the last conclave, when Pope Benedict was elected, there was a kind of a gray smoke, and nobody was really sure if we had a pope.

All right, J.

So we generated so much heat that we've actually cracked their chimney here.

The funnel has cracked.

I'm gonna leave before Neil gets that cool down a bit.

Water.

Okay, so where a previous vote was unsuccessful, we just had a second vote.

Good news.

We have a new pope.

So we need to tell the outside world on the traditional way is, as I said before, white smoke.

So we have some potassium chlorate.

Eight in this case on a sugar which is lactose.

And then finally, we have this stuff, which is a resin from a tray.

Okay, so here we go.

White smoke.

How The most proper.

So the key differences is thea, source of the carbon in each of flames.

In the black smoke we have.

An Tracee answer scene is a ring based molecule.

It's three rings took together lots of carbon, lots of hydrogen but no oxygen when that molecule borns, when it combines with the oxygen in the air, it produces soot particles.

Right producers, bits of sort, solid carbon, which absorb light.

If anyone who has seen charcoal solid carbon is black, right, And that's what we're getting in the black smoke with the white smoke.

We have potassium chlorate and lacked.

Oksana.

Lactose is slightly smaller than andthe recede.

It's got carbon and hydrogen, but it's also got a lot of oxygen.

So in answer Seen combines with the oxygen from the passive potassium chlorate on the atmosphere.

We don't get these big soot particles.

We get seal to.

We get water vapor.

We get lots of these things.

We might even get a bit of potassium chloride forming from the CLO rate.

But the key point is, we don't have these big soot particles that the answer scene gives us, and we end up with this much clean or smoke on dhe.

Hopefully the difference between them, the white smoke in the black smoke is visible from ST Peter Square.

When people are looking up at the top of the Sistine Chapel, Pope Francis is the new pope.

Interestingly, Pope Francis is a chemist.

Study chemistry when he was younger.

So evidently, chemistry does prepare you for lots of different careers.

We tell our students this all the time, but it can't even prepare you for the highest office of the Catholic Church.