Science Is Magic

There’s a combustion reaction between the water and the alcohol producing heat and light (energy) and carbon dioxide and water.
When the bill is soaked in the solution, the alcohol has a high vapour pressure and is mainly on the outside of the bill. When the bill is lit on fire, the alcohol burns, not the actual bILL. The temperature isn’t high enough to evaporate the water, so the bill remains wet and isn’t able to catch fire on its own. After the alcohol has burned away, the flame goes out, leaving a slightly damp bill.

The experiment involves releasing energy, and it is a chemical change because the liquid alcohol changes into a gas.

Title:

Burning Money on Fire

Purpose:

If you soak a bill in alcohol and water, and then light it on fire, will the bill burn completely, or will the alcohol burn out leaving a damp bill?

Materials:

Money bill
Tongs
Matches or lighter
Salt
Solution of 50% alcohol and 50% water (you can mix 95% alcohol with water in a 1:1 ratio)
Procedure:

Prepare the solution of 50% alcohol and 50% water.
Add a pinch of salt to the alcohol/water solution.
Soak the bill in the solution so that it’s thoroughly soaked.
Use the tongs to pick up the bill and allow the access liquid to drain. Move the bill
away from the solution.

Light the bill on fire and allow it to burn until the flame goes out.
The “magic trick” concept of this experiment, it that if you just took a bill and lit it not fire, it would’ve burned, and in this case, it didn’t.

Data/Calculations:

We first tried out the magic trick a week before filming. The first time it went great, and the next few times on the same day, the alcohol burned to quickly and you couldn’t really see the reaction clearly. We left the bill soaking in the solution for the next week, while the beaker was covered with tinfoil. We came back ready to film, and the first time we lit the bill on fire, it started burning a little. We decided to remake the solution, and try again. After that everything worked and we were able to film it. On the third shot, we zoomed the camera a little bit closer to that you can really see the fire. We lit the bill on fire, and the alcohol started burning away, and then the actual bill started burning with it. We think that we either didn’t soak the bill long enough for the third time, or that you just can’t use the same solution more than once or twice.

C2H5OH + 4 O2 -> 2 CO2 + 3 H2O + energy

Conclusion:

When you soak a money bill in a 50% alcohol and 50% water solution and then light it on fire, the alcohol burns away, leaving a damp currency bill.

Sources: http://chemistry.about.com/od/demonstrationsexperiments/ss/burnmoney.htm