Steel Wool in Liquid Oxygen

Professor Saykally combines heated steel wool with liquid oxygen

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• berkeley
• chem
• chemistry
• demo
• explosion
• iron
• liquid
• oxygen
• saykally
• steel

[geonerd]

I understand that if you soak a charcoal brick in liquid oxygen it will explode - in a BIG way - when ignited.

[azmanabdula]

@Desaster6 the hotter the flame the less visible it becomes.....

the brighter the flame the less energy is converted to heat....(infrared)

and is instead converted to photons of light.....(in the visible spectrum)

so yeah

peace

-Peely

[azmanabdula]

@9hello123 that used to shit me.....

i remember everyone at school giving the test tubes a good coating of "carbon" because they thought the brighter flame was hotter.....

until one messed around with the blue flame.....and found the hottest part....wasn't visible....

good burn story ......

[azmanabdula]

@noircat all of the chemicals are spent faster.....that is all....

check out coal in pure oxygen.....

[noircat]

@elixa4 Greater surface area, lower volume, and thus quicker thermal reaction, would be my guess.

[elixa4]

why wool...?

[minecraft714]

You have an epic science teacher.

[503Gerry]

I always wondered if it was possible to set fire to liquid oxygen.

[9hello123]

@Desaster6 No its not, he just turned down the flow of oxygen to the Bunsen burner. There is less oxygen being supplied to the Bunsen burner, not more.

[Desaster6]

Lol the Bunsen burner begins to be brighter cuz of the free Oxygen