How can you test if theres magnesium in a sparkler?

Question

I want to know if a coloured sparkler contains magnesium. Are there any tests i can conduct to see if they do?

Answer 1

Try some flame tests on different compounds and see what looks right.  Magnesium metal burns with a bright white light and does not give the characteristic sparks; that's iron.

There's a list of flame colours here if you're not sure what to try:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flame_test