The Pivotal Role Of Fire In Our Society | Oddly Satisfying Science

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Today’s burning question: What causes this reaction? The answer is sure to spark your interest in fireworks as we explore all about fire and how to stay safe. I’m Nick Uas, and welcome to Oddly Satisfying Science. As a scientist, I’m on a mission to find the coolest experiments the world has to offer and see how they can improve our everyday lives. With the help of some expert friends, we’ll discover the secrets of the universe one awesome experiment at a time. Seriously, do not try this at home.

It’s safe to say that learning to control fire was one of the most important discoveries in the evolution of human society. For over 100,000 years, fire has played a major role in our social lives—campfires and s’mores, anyone? It’s also been crucial in the development of our civilization, from early metalworking to modern-day car engines. Today, we’re taking a closer look at all the things fire does, from flying lanterns to survival hacks, and even space travel.

In our next five experiments, we’re going to do fun, fascinating things with flames, starting with what seems impossible: lighting metal on fire. Today, we’re going to see how that can happen with some steel wool, a 9-volt battery, and my first guest, Cat, an electrical engineer who has worked at NASA. I’m really glad you’re here because today’s experiment is all about electricity.

Basically, we’re going to connect this battery to the steel wool, creating a circuit. When an electrical current moves across a circuit, the atoms in the circuit are excited with energy, causing their outer electrons to break away and move to the next atom. This reaction allows electricity to flow from the power company through your house and into your phone charger.

But how does this light steel on fire? Have you heard about the fire triangle? To create a fire, we need three things: heat, fuel, and oxygen. The battery will provide the heat, the steel wool will be our fuel, and the oxygen will come from the air.

First things first: safety. Are we ready to light it up? Let’s do a countdown. In three, two, one… circuit! Wow, that’s really cool! It smells a bit, but look at those sparks! The current was too much for the thin pieces of metal, causing them to burn up.

Metal conducts electricity, so when we touch the battery to the steel wool, its atoms start vibrating. The battery adds too much energy, making the steel wool’s atoms so agitated that they create a lot of heat. The self-ignition temperature of steel wool is 1,292°F, so the heat generated was enough to combust the steel wool and produce a flame.

Now it’s my turn! I’m noticing there’s not as much burning because mine is more spread out, allowing more oxygen to interact with it. This is actually a cool survival hack—if you’re ever lost in the wilderness, make sure you have a battery and some steel wool.

We’re also going to need some paper, or if you’re in the wild, you can use leaves. Let’s roll that up and put it in the steel wool. I’ll hold this, and you put your battery on it. There we go! Look at that flame! I feel very proud of this.

If you thought that was cool, I haven’t shown you the coolest thing yet. This scale right here will help us prove something interesting. You might think that since we’re burning something, we would have a smaller weight afterward, but that’s not what’s happening. Let’s put some steel wool on the scale.

It started at 4.8 grams. Now, let’s light it up! Wow, it looks like a nest burning! It’s climbing in weight as it burns. It’s actually pulling oxygen from the air, which adds mass. It went from 4.8 grams to 10 grams, more than doubling in weight!

Thank you, Cat, for teaching me about the fire triangle and showing me that you can actually light something on fire and it can gain mass.

Now that Cat’s got me thinking about energy, it’s time to refuel myself. I have a pretzel stick and a donut—my two favorite treats. Which one will give me more energy? I might know the perfect person for the job.

Hey, Alex! This is my friend Alex, a geneticist. Which snack will give me the most energy? We can figure that out by calculating the calories in each. When we talk about food calories, we’re actually referring to 1,000 lowercase calories.

Today, we’re going to use a bomb calorimeter to light one of these snacks on fire. How about the peanut? It has a lot of calories. We’ll light it on fire and see how much it raises the temperature of a certain quantity of water.

First, we need to get a baseline temperature of our water. It looks like it’s 24.6°C. Now, let’s light the peanut! It’s on fire! The peanut is burning, and we can see the temperature of the water going up.

The bomb calorimeter gives us a measurement of the peanut’s potential caloric energy, not the amount we can actually ingest. The way we figure out the number of calories in food is through the Atwater system, which considers how our metabolism works.

Our peanut raised the temperature of the water by 8.5°C, meaning it has about 1,700 calories of energy, or 1.7 uppercase calories per nut. You could do this for any food and figure out which one has the most energy. If you guessed the donut, you’d be right!

Thank you, Alex, for showing me how to calculate calories with some simple items.

Now it’s time for some simple science with my engineering friend Maynard. If you’re into rockets, this next experiment might be right up your alley. We can create movement from a little fire using just two common objects.

First, cut the top of a tea bag off and empty out the contents. Stand the tea bag upright and light the top. As the fire burns from top to bottom, it creates a hot column of air that rises, creating lift. This is known as a convection current, the same principle that makes hot air balloons fly.

Now, let’s see what happens when we get liquid water to ignite some flames. This is sodium metal, which is very reactive with water. Sodium is an alkali metal and is unstable when alone.

When we put sodium in water, it creates a reaction that produces heat and hydrogen gas, which can ignite. Let’s see what happens!

Wow! The sodium is on fire! The reaction creates a firework-like display. Sodium and water should not mix, but it’s fascinating to see the reaction.

For our next demo, we have to go outside. This is rocket candy, a fuel source used by rocket enthusiasts. The main ingredient is sugar, which we need to combine with an oxidizing agent, potassium nitrate, to create rocket fuel.

Let’s see what happens when we add heat! I’m going to light this wick. Wow! That was intense! The reaction burns at around 2,000°F.

Thank you for joining me on this journey through fire and science. I’m Nick Uas, and this is Oddly Satisfying Science. See you next time!

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