OT: Fun with Magnesium

I think it is because magnesium has a higher affinity for oxygen than hydrogen does. An exothermic reaction occurs when oxygen jumps ship from water and joins magnesium. Water is essentially an oxygen delivery system for magnesium. Hydrogen gas is produced as a waste product.

Water/steam, and CO2 as well. In fact a scienceguy once appeared on Jay Leno with two chunks of dry ice and lit a piece of magnesium inbetween them, which merrily burned inside them, giving off gusto photons.

Your thermite insight was quite apt. Some iron oxide thrown in amongst the "sawdust-like" swarf would be quite effective.

Tim

-- Deep Fryer: A very philosophical monk. Website @

of

crackling

"And

pile

Just dont add potassium nitrate. BOOM Fun stuff, i have a couple of boxes of fine shavings I am saving until fire season is over and everything is wet.

My dad was the officer in charge at a fire at a Volkswagen shop, where the attic was full of VW engine blocks*. Every firefighter that he sent in there, he told "don't put water on the engines, it'll be bad".

Only one guy didn't listen -- FWOOSH.

IIRC no one was hurt, but the shop did burn down faster.

• Which are cast out of an Al-Mg alloy. It won't burn in air, but...

Magnesium is easily oxidized by water. As I have heard, put magnesium in hot water (towards boiling), and it goes plop-plop-fizz-fizz, almost like calcium does at room temperature, to produce hydrogen!

- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)

Titanium chips also burn quite bright. We used to get chips from the machinist and burn them at night. White fire! Misting it with water really makes it flare up.

Also OT: There's a good reference on Wiki under Sodium. Way back when these things weren't treated so seriously, they had to dispose of a large quantity (tons) of surplus Sodium metal. So they took it down to a nearby lake and chucked it in. It's a video clip, worth a look.

Somewhat related to this thread: There's a PBS science show that had a bit about the 'death' of chemistry sets and experimentation by kids. Mainly due to the fear of liability on the part of manufacturers but also fueled by the current wave of paranoia over anything chemical. They had a bit about an outfit in New Mexico(?) that was 'visited' by armed federal agents for shipping chemicals to hobbyists.

Homeland Security is probably reading this thread and cutting orders for a 'visit' for those caught in possession of a block of magnesium and a file.

It is a shame that the US has given up it's freedom to a bunch of failed parking ticket administrators

Martin

See there, Theres a little pyro in everybody! Hope ya get the bug!

Yes, good clip. And wait 'til you see the clips on Rubidium and Cesium on youtube

Ed

That would be,

Coincidentially, I'm on the chemistry forum mentioned in the article.

Tim

-- Deep Fryer: A very philosophical monk. Website @

Ok - how about going after all those who changed out the 50-90's temp sensor in the air conditioner sensing unit where you set the temp... Bi-metal strips and that glass bottle with two wires and a liquid... A tip switch. Oh No. Get you one way or get you another. Martin Martin H. Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net TSRA, Life; NRA LOH & Patron Member, Golden Eagle, Patriot's Medal. NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder IHMSA and NRA Metallic Silhouette maker & member.

Mart> >

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Yes. Not only that but if you are unlucky with a hot metal fire it will also do the same thing to a CO2 fire extinguisher by stealing the O2 from the C leaving a plume of soot and a brighter fire. The advice for metal fires is generally to walk briskly away from them. A bucket of sand might put out small ones.

It is interestingly Al-Mg alloy was also the most likely cause of the worlds first major nuclear reactor fire at Winscale with 50th anniversary this week. They tried various ways to put it out including water. Switching off the air cooling eventually won after they had knocked out enough of the fuel elements out of the burning graphite core with scaffold poles.

UK had "hot" milk for a while afterwards. Plume of radioactivity was detected over a wide area even with the relatively crude gear of the day. The contemporary report in New Scientist is also online at:

Regards, Martin Brown

FYI, magnesium will even burn to a limited extend in Nitrogen. Float a little boat on some water in a pan. Put some Mg on the boat and get it burning. Slip a beaker over the boat sealing the air inside. The Mg utilizes the O2 first and I suppose the CO2 and the boat rises quickly in the beaker about 15 - 20 %. When the O2 is depleted it continues to burn slowly to form magnesium nitride but as I recall from 45 years ago, goes out well before all the N2 is consumed. After it cools, but a few drops of water on the ash pile and you should get ammonia released. Just another way to "fix" nitrogen.

NT

Hmm, I don't know about the US, but hereabouts, solar hot water systems have a sacrificial anode which is swapped out every 5 years or so. Usually plenty of metal still on it. Yep, pure Mg.

youtube

Those explosions are faked, along with other 'experiments' carried out by the braniac team.

Aluminum boats use them, too. Of course, they're a little more streamlined than a water heater anode. ;-)

Cheers! Rich

I think early Lawnboy mower decks were Mg.... ? /mark