Chemistry can be fun!

Those of you who have been in school chemistry classes, remember the blackboards full of boring equasions like this:  Fe₂O₃ + 2Al → 2Fe + Al₂O₃ + heat
Seems boring? Think again. This is a thermite reaction! You know what thermite is, right? Well, its a mixture of fine aluminium powder and an oxide, most commonly iron (III) oxide, also known as rust.
Sounds even more boring? Guess again, the reaction is quite violent- producing enough heat to melt down a car and often being even explosive.
The reaction doesent require any oxygen, so it is irreversible and the reaction can happen even underwater. How violent the reaction is, you ask? Well see for yourself!



After seeing this, you probably want to know how to make it. Well, its your lucky day because i know how to do it.
What you need is
- Powdered aluminium
- Powdered iron (III) oxide.
- Magnesium or chromium strip for igniting this crap. I've heard that sparklers will do the trick.

Mix the fine aluminium and iron powder firmly together, add a strip of chromium or magnesium and voila! You now have some thermite!
If you are a lazy bum like i am, you'll buy it off ebay. 1lb bucket with ignitor is about 6 bucks when i last looked.
So, if you wanna burn something down, really-really down, then thermite is the right thing to use! But be careful- as you heard previously, it burns at a scorching heat and cannot be extinguished, so dont try it- you can fuck yourself seriously up.

Be back tomorrow for some more fun experiments!