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I'm Bethany Van Delft, and this is The 10 News, where we get the lowdown on what's up in the world.
It's Thursday, July 1st.
American flags are flying and fireworks are fizzling as the country gets ready for Independence Day.
So let's dive in and explore some fun 4th of July traditions.
After many events were canceled last year, some 4th of July fireworks celebrations are back in cities and communities around the country.
Fireworks are loud and colorful, But what is it that makes them so explosively cool?
Jacob and Olivia Rosenzweig from the Curious Kid podcast are here to tell us all about the science behind fantastic fireworks.
When I think about the Fourth of July, I think about so many wonderful traditions, including barbecues with family and friends and wearing red, white and blue.
There is another spectacular Fourth of July tradition that I look forward to every year.
I love watching a beautiful fireworks display on the night of July 4th.
Fireworks are magical.
They might seem like magic, but fireworks involve lots of science.
Cool!
In order to understand how fireworks work, it helps to know the different parts of a.
There's a stick, a fuse, an explosive and little colorful pellets called stars.
The explosive and stars are located inside a spherical shell.
If you've ever had the chance to see fireworks live, you may have noticed that the firework shells are launched from cylinders on the ground.
Each cylinder holds a single shell.
Sticking out of the bottom of each shell is a stick.
It points the shell in the right direction, up.
When the shell is launched from the cylinder, the fuse is lit.
When the fuse hits the explosive inside the shell, the shell explodes.
The explosion lights up the stars that were inside the shell and sends them soaring in different directions.
And different colors are formed by different chemicals inside the stars.
For example, copper forms blue and sodium forms yellow.
All the work of putting the fireworks together is done by pyrotechnicians.
What does that mean?
Pyrotechnicians know exactly how to get the amazing colors and sounds you see in a beautiful firework show.
They customize each show to create the colors and designs you see when fireworks explode.
That's amazing!
Pyrotechnicians work so hard to plan incredible fireworks displays.
For example, the world-famous Macy's Fourth of July fireworks show this year will feature the explosion of 65000 shells during the 25-minute show.
Whoa!
That's more than 2,500 shells a minute.
The planning of the Macy's Fireworks Show is done by about 60 licensed pyrotechnicians that plan every detail of the show for months before the big day.
Learning how fireworks work gives me a new appreciation for this beautiful 4th of July tradition.
Happy 4th of July, everybody!
Thanks, Jacob and Olivia.
It'll be super exciting to see how these pyrotechnic pros light up the night.
Fireworks and food are two main ingredients for a July 4th fun, but some people take eating to the extreme on July 4th.
Our correspondent, Ryan Nurse, has more on the competitive eating scene and how the now famous 4th of July tradition got its start.
For many people, the 4th of July celebrates such lofty things as America's independence from England, the founding of a nation built on freedom and democracy, the bursting of fireworks in the sky, But for me, it's mainly about food.
Creamy potato salad, sizzling spicy barbecued chicken hamburgers and their tastier cousins, cheeseburgers.
And of course, the most 4th of July-est of foods, Hot dogs.
No matter how many hot dogs I eat on Independence Day, I take comfort in the fact that someone will be eating more.
A lot more.
As a former announcer of the Nathan's Famous 4th of July Hot Dog Eating Contest, I know that even if I stuff my face with three hot dogs, the reigning champion, Joey Jaws Chestnut, will eat 25 times that in 10 minutes.
And as the author of Eat, This Book a year of gorging and glory on the competitive eating circuit I know that I'd much rather be at the neighborhood barbecue than in Coney Island competing against the world's greatest speed eaters.
How do I know this, you ask?
Because of two things, training and science.
See, the hardest part of competitive eating happens before the hot dogs ever hit your belly.
Let's start at the beginning with chewing.
The jaw, particularly a muscle in your cheek called the masseter, is one of the strongest muscles in the body, but it still gets tired.
That's why competitive eaters train the jaw by chewing up to five pieces of gum at once.
Some competitive eaters, or gurgitators as they're called, have a bite strength of 280 pounds of force, which is more than that of a German shepherd.
And what comes next after chewing?
If you said swallowing, high five.
And the reason that's less fun as a pro-gurgitator is because your body has what's called a gag reflex, which is actually a good thing.
The gag reflex is what helps your body get rid of food that might be unsafe to swallow.
So it's that thing you do if you're trying to swallow too much food at once, or what you're swallowing is just flat out gross.
To push past the gag reflex, competitive eaters train muscles near the throat, called esophageal sphincters, in order to swallow entire mouthfuls of water all at once.
Some of them do this repeatedly with up to two gallons of water.
This stretches their stomach muscles, you know, to make space for more hot dogs.
When the food is on its way down, sometimes it needs a little help.
That's why you see pro-gurgitators jumping and shimmying to help push food down toward the stomach.
The famous Japanese eater Takeru the Tsunami Kobayashi uses his patented Kobe shake.
A wiggling dance that helped lead him to six straight titles on the 4th of July.
But the very last thing competitive eaters do in a contest right before the final whistle, is something they borrowed from a tiny striped rodent.
Here's a little tip.
The rodent makes this sound.
If you said chipmunk, well, extra credit.
See, at the end of the contest, whatever you fit into your cheeks counts toward your total.
So the technique of chipmunking, or stretching out your cheeks to store food gives you a competitive advantage.
Also, fun fact, a chipmunk's cheeks can stretch to be three times larger than its head.
No way!
But anyway, there's a catch.
Whatever you can't swallow in the competition in 30 seconds after the whistle doesn't count.
There you have it, the science behind training for the 4th of July hot dog eating contest.
And now you know why it's more fun to be an amateur eater, chewing slowly and just savoring the deliciousness of your food.
Needless to say, don't try any of these techniques at home.
Just relax and enjoy your 4th of July cookout and leave the chipmunking and stomach stretching exercises to the pros.
Thanks, Ryan.
Now I'm getting hungry.
Now let's check in on some headlines.
Today, Canadians everywhere are celebrating Canada Day.
The holiday celebrates when provinces were joined into one country.
Cities around the country celebrate with parades, food, and fireworks too.
This year, because of the pandemic, some cities are offering to-go s'mores and hot dog kits Awesome!
Awesome!
It took them a week to set up the half mile long line, which they walked across successfully with nothing but a 1600 foot drop below them.
One lobster diver recently had a whale of a time.
While he was fishing off the coast of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, he was accidentally swallowed by a humpback whale and then spit back out.
The man had some bruises, but otherwise was okay.
I wonder if his name was Pinocchio.
And speaking of ocean adventures, a message in a bottle has united two teenagers across the Atlantic.
While on vacation in Rhode Island, a boy sent the bottle, but eventually forgot about it.
It wasn't until three years later that it was picked up by a boy on a beach in Portugal.
Parents, grandparents, anyone watching a kid this summer, I've got something for you.
Once Upon a Dance is an award-winning series of interactive children's books that turn story time into move time.
Kids leap, twirl, and act out every page.
It's a literary adventure and a full-on performance rolled into one.
The books are created by Teacher Terrell, a former dance teacher, and they feature her daughter Ballerina Kay as a guide and role model.
The themes are ones we all want our kids to absorb.
Bravery, empathy, perseverance, and the magic of friendship.
With 40 books across nine series, including the brand new Katina Ballerina titles dropping July 1st, there's no shortage of adventures to explore.
Swap screen time for connection.
Get your kids off the couch and into a story.
Jump, twirl and leap over to onceuponedancecom, or find Once Upon a Dance books wherever you buy books online.
That's onceuponedance.com.
Summer schedules are unpredictable.
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Going can feel like a lot.
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Make an impact on your child's learning.
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And the 10 News listeners can get an exclusive 20 off IXL membership when they sign up today at wwwixlcom.
Slash 10.
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The two teenagers, now 16 and 17, connected after a picture of the message went viral.
Excellent!
Life imitates art.
Coming up next... What?
What's the big idea?
Trivia on the 10.
Speaking of food on the fourth, New England has an interesting offbeat holiday treat.
What is it?
Is it A, salmon and peas, B, beets with blueberries, or C, strawberries with cheese?
Did you guess it?
The answer is A. Salmon and peas.
The pink fish has been an Independence Day tradition in New England for centuries and a staple on plates since before the country was founded.
Salmon was a source of food for the area's people, since hundreds of thousands of fish made their annual migration up the region's rivers during this time.
Just keep swimming.
Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming.
Peas also ripens in late June, so the veggie became the perfect pairing.
Time is up, but before we go, here's a quick note for the grown-ups.
Thanks for listening to The 10 News.
Look out for our new episodes on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and extras on Saturdays.
The 10 News is a co-production of Small But Mighty Media and Next Chapter Podcasts and is distributed by iHeart Radio.
The 10 News creative team is Craving Salmon and includes Kate Hale, Tracy Crooks, Pete Musto, Jenna Pasqua and Sarah Olander.
Ryan Nurse and Jacob and Olivia Rosenzweig contributed to this episode.
Our production director is Jeremiah Tittle and our executive producers are Donald Albright and show creator Tracy Leeds Kaplan.
I'm Bethany Van Delft and thanks for listening to The 10 News.
