Elementary Production: Thermite Reactions

johnm7115 Says:

Nov 15, 2009 - Try doing this without the bricks.

ravensmomscorp76 Says:

Dec 3, 2009 - GREAT VIDEO! Thanks so much for posting this! I am already in the process of recommending this to people! :)

LipsMalloy Says:

Dec 4, 2009 - mabakken, great experiments, but I have a question. You say copper oxide is much lower on the reactivity scale, but your experiment shows it to react quickly and explosively. Can you explain?

VilliVanilli Says:

Dec 7, 2009 - You are a dane, right? :-D"Magnesium bånd" :P

lewisvz Says:

Dec 7, 2009 - AWESOME were do you get the hand held torch?

dreamwalkercchms Says:

Jan 2, 2010 - Lipsmalloy:Precisely cos copper is unreactive, it is easily displaced by metals(eg aluminium and zinc) from its compounds therefore rate of reaction is fast.

Revelde20 Says:

Jan 2, 2010 - dagerous

GingleGangle1 Says:

Feb 1, 2010 - What did u put at the end?

seuntjie900 Says:

Feb 14, 2010 - its like the alkali metals, the further down you go, the more reactive they become, this should also be the case for metals because then they have more electrons to use up in the reaction

mewrox99 Says:

Feb 25, 2010 - @LipsMalloyDue to it being lower on the reactivity series it's potential for it to be displaced by a more reactive metal is high. Metals high in the reactivity series have much lower potential to be reduce there for the rate of reaction is much lower and the required activation energy higher.

reven676 Says:

Mar 14, 2010 - you meen dangerous? what a fail at spelling

reven676 Says:

Mar 14, 2010 - freeze it at 3:05

Revelde20 Says:

Mar 16, 2010 - you mean to like" meen" and mean? check your self! typo and fail to spell ! ?

mV33rs Says:

Mar 23, 2010 - Have you ever tried NaOH + Al?

Bernler75 Says:

Apr 16, 2010 - I made one out of Copper(II)oxide and titanium metal, I put it in a tube and left a crater in my lawn.

mrhomescientist Says:

Apr 21, 2010 - I've done some manganese thermites too, and mine were pretty violent as RokSrakaCar said (two of my videos feature it). I used MnO2:Al in a ratio of 2.42:1 by weight, with 425 mesh aluminum powder. I've found that finer powder makes a huge difference in the speed of reaction, so maybe that's why yours didn't go as quickly?

amourdutigre Says:

Jun 20, 2010 - You should try that with Uranium oxide... :-)

GWR4079 Says:

Jul 7, 2010 - and how much did all the oxidising chemicals and the aluminimum and iron powder cost you to do this?

DevilMaster Says:

Nov 25, 2010 - So that's what "blur mixed with blur" is! :-D

mabakken Says:

Nov 25, 2010 - haha, that's right ;)

syntheser Says:

Jan 6, 2011 - In my opinion, it's strongly depend what kind of aluminium powder did you used. There are various micro meter in size (the smaller size is make the mixture more homogeneous -> more reactive), and there are flake- or sphercial aluminium powders. In pyrotechnical mixtures the various aluminium powders (flake or sphercial) are strongly define the mixture burn rate!

punxsutawneybarney Says:

Jun 1, 2011 - A Florida engineer, Jonathan Cole, recently demonstrated how to use packaged thermite to cut steel girders, box columns, and bolts. See my video:Incendiary Experiments

MrAde9999 Says:

Oct 29, 2011 - maganese burns in small and explodes in big. copper explodes in small but burns in big

GolfingThurnis Says:

Nov 2, 2011 - so that's what happened on 9/11

Dylan Faist Says:

May 25, 2012 - Same here, I used MnO2 and Al, 2:1 ratio of MnO2 to Al and I lit it and the whole thing exploded like a commercial firework.