Christopher likes metalworking, fencing, and reading. But his favorite pastime is horseback riding—"to be able to harness the power of a huge animal." He hopes to become a marine biologist or lawyer someday.
Christopher was curious about the potency of carbon sources used in the manufacture of explosive powders. Charcoal in black powder explosives provides the carbon needed for the combustion. But because charcoal is mainly carbon, he hypothesized that the type of wood used to make the charcoal for such powder would not matter and the potency would be the same.
Christopher made charcoal from pine, eucalyptus, madrona, red oak, and lemon wood by burning each wood separately in a can with a small hole. He then mixed the charcoals individually with potassium nitrate and sulfur to create different explosive powders. He packed uniform amounts of each powder into a small mortar and fired a golf ball, performing five tests with each, and five more with a commercial black powder. Christopher used a stopwatch to measure how long each ball stayed airborne and compared the averaged results. Lemon wood charcoal rendered the most powerful explosive powder, typically better than commercial powder, suggesting lemon wood charcoal contains more than just carbon. Pine and oak charcoal were the least potent.
