The Fourth of July is upon us, something that would be hard to miss even if you didn’t have a calendar. Twitter is blowing up with trends dedicated to Independence Day, including one for the #4thofJuly hashtag and one for the “Happy 4th” topic. Not only that, but lots of sites have content dedicated to tomorrow’s significance, including everybody’s favorite 4th of July activity: shooting off fireworks.

While the enjoyment of personal firework use in 2012 has been hampered by the high temperatures, which, in turn, has led to the banishment of personal firework use in many areas, including Lexington, that doesn’t mean all the fun has to be taken away. For instance, Lexington is still having its public fireworks display, it’s just that local residents are not allowed to shoot off fireworks at their homes. With that in mind, chances are, if you live in the United States, you’ll be seeing your fair share of fireworks tonight and tomorrow.

With that in mind, a post from Boing Boing provided a chart showing us how fireworks get their colors, courtesy of The Works, a children’s science and technology museum in Bloomington, Minnesota. As you might expect, elemental compounds plays a big role in determining the color of fireworks:

(image)
You can file this under the “The More You Know” file, which is normally reserved for showing off and attempting to impress friends. As indicated, Twitter is all about Independence Day at the moment, with three separate trends devoted to tomorrow’s holiday. Some are a little disappointed the Fourth of July doesn’t have the same level of excitement it used to. Others are just happy to be apart of the trend:

And just because this is an article about fireworks, here’s a YouTube video of an illegal fireworks stand in West Virginia that started its grand finale a little early, courtesy of CNN: