Scyence: Chemistry, engineering, and pyrotechnics.

There are two main types of nitrocellulose: flash paper and guncotton. Flash paper is the paper form of nitrocellulose, and guncotton is the cotton form of nitrocellulose. Guncotton burns significantly faster than flash paper and produces a lot of rapidly expanding gases. Using this knowledge, I blocked one end of a copper pipe, added a piece of Nichrome hooked up to yet another deconstructed electric lighter, shoved a small wad of guncotton down the pipe, rolled up several small balls of flash paper, and put them down the barrel as well. The guncotton exploded, igniting the flash paper balls but at the same time shooting them out of the barrel. Unfortunately, the flash paper balls were much too small to go anywhere except a couple of feet in front of the barrel before burning out, so I revisited this project with the handheld fireball launcher.