Burnt Aluminum, damnit

[SqueegeeKid]

My co-worker used WD40 to clean the entire engine bay of his filthy car. Try that.

[tranman]

Try oven cleaner. Oven cleaner will remove burn marks from the metal in your oven so i dont see why it wont work for this..

[QUINCYMASSGUY]

elements

Elements do burn so Al being an element won't matter. Ever see magnesium get lit? It's a bright white light and really hot.

[DocRocker]

elements burn

Dude elements do burn. The spectral pattern emitted as metals or any other element that burns is like a fingerprint for that element.

http://dbhs.wvusd.k12.ca.us/Chem-History/Kirchhoff-Bunsen-1860.html

Why I know that... I dont know.

Back in the good old days of chemistry class

[RT pRo AuToMaG]

hydrogen is an element, and it burns. Most things can burn...

[demonguy8]

The reason he was mistaken about it not being to burn because it was an ELEMENT is because he was under the mistaken impression that fire breaks things down... When in actuallity fire ADDS pure oxygene to whatever is being burnt. And on that note, it would appear I actually did learn something in my highschool chemclass despite the abundance of SMOKINGLY HOT women in that class.... ahh memories....

[03vert]

I'd like to see Smart Parts burn.(sorry, ICD owner)

[Python14]

HSW burned and they make stuff for Smartparts?

[MarkM]

Ally does burn and very violently...take a sheet of ally foil and then "clean" the surface with a mild acid and it will burst into flames...the surface of all ally will oxidize forming a protective barrier, when the barrier is breached the oxygen will react with lots of smoke and flames...annodising is bonded to ally to form a protective barrier from the oxygen in the air to stop this reaction. I can see that someone will say "what happens when you saw through ally surely you will get this same reaction, but I have never seen that happen", this is because the action of sawing will not expose enough surface area quick enough for the reaction to take place, hence the rub with an acid, the ally can't form the oxidised layer quick enough so reacts the way it does. No of course you can't put a match to ally to get flames but just because it doesn't burn that way doesn't mean it can't. Ever wondered why ally powder is used in some explosives, it ain't to stop the fire.

[Crimson_Turkey]

Coke use coke. That stuff is potent, I use it on my car engine and my toilet.

[speedyejl]

My bad partially,

ELEMENTS DON'T BURN FIRST OFF ALL

For the example with the magnesium, Mg is not burning. Its

2Mg + 2O2 --> 2MgO + 02

You can burn Aluminum which would look like

4Al +302 --> 2Al203

That would take ALOT of heat though like, nothing I could have done with my little butane lighter. If you check out an activity series chart based on a H2 standard you'll see that Mg is just a bit more reactive which is why you can get it off with not that much heat. (maybe a bunson burner, most times you see people light Mg its usually mixed with something to kick off faster)

And more importantly the gas worked, thanks

[cgrieves]

Aluminium has a porous surface. The marks you are seeing are impurities (most probably carbon) on the surface, i.e. oils from your fingers that have burned, and have left material in the porous surface structure.

As MarkM stated, Aluminium does indeed burn, i.e. it oxidises. When you saw through a block of alumiunium you are only revealing a small surface area for oxidisation. The oxidisation gives off heat, but as the area is so small it's negligible compared to the heat derived by sawing. Try shaving aluminium into powder in a vacuum then introduce oxygen. Boom- lots of surface area, lots of oxidisation, lots of heat (burning).

Aluminium powder is used in the thermite reaction which illustrates the heat which can be derived from oxidation. (It's often used to weld train tracks together)

http://www.angliacampus.com/schools/org2823/science/thermite.html

[robertjuric]

Originally posted by cgrieves
Aluminium powder is used in the thermite reaction which illustrates the heat which can be derived from oxidation. (It's often used to weld train tracks together)

Thermite is some badd stuff :)

It does burn you just have to get it really hot. Thermite is alumin filings/powder + iron oxide(rust). But you cant light it with just a match, they usually use magnesium ribbon, which is lit w/ a blowtorch(ghetto way of doing it), or if you get magnesium filings they could be lit by normal means.