DENJIRO: Today, I’m going to show you a strange and unusual way of starting a fire. I’m going to use metal balls for this. First, I’m going to slam the two balls against each other with a piece of aluminum foil in between. As you can see, nothing is happening. Now, I’m going to use rusty metal balls. Watch what happens when I slam them together.
BOY: Sparks flew!
DENJIRO: Why do we get sparks when we use rusty metal balls? The surface has a lot of iron oxide on it. The iron oxide and aluminum react and produce sparks. Here, I have a mixture of iron oxide powder and aluminum powder. Let me light the match on top.
The high temperature caused a strong reaction wherein the aluminum took oxygen from the iron oxide. This reaction is called the thermite reaction. The same reaction occurred with the rusty metal balls and aluminum. When the two balls collided, the kinetic energy was converted to thermal energy, producing heat. This heat was what caused the thermite reaction.
Let’s use this method to start a fire. I have two rusty metal balls. I’m going to wrap one with aluminum foil. I’m going to produce sparks by slamming them into each other. I have some tinder as well. Here I go. As you can see, you can start a fire with rusty metal balls and aluminum.
I hope energy will bring you all happiness. Our magic word is "Happy Energy!”