>with water, magnesium steals the oxygen from the water and keeps burning,
while lots of hydrogen bubbles off and probably ignites from the heat,
causing neeto explosions, you have to use some kind of oxygen exclusion
<type extinguisher for a magnesium fire.
As I'm sure everyone else will tell you, there is no theft involved.
Magnesium burns at a high enough temperature (Around 4000 degrees)
that it causes water to hydrolize, or break down into its component
hydrogen and oxygen. These, of course, once they cool down enough,
immediately conflagrate (Detonate?) back into water. Interesting
phenomenon. Cars with mag wheels that due to some unforseen circumstance
drag their wheels along the asphalt tend to file off minute particles
that are hot enough to ignite. These, in turn, may lead to the entire
wheel igniting. If the car should burn from some other source, then
the wheels usually get hot enough to ignite. The firemen, understandably
enough, resent having things explode when they try to put water on
them... They get REEEEEEAL bright, too. Lots of ultra-violets in
a magnesium fire.
It's fun to take a piece of magnesium ribbon attached to a weight,
ignite it, and toss it into a swimming pool...
ObBritContent: It's too gray out to drive Milou, so I had to settle
for fun in Tintin! To whomever was wondering about the pleasure of owning
an MG/BGT: I've been having a blast driving Tintin for the past 23 years!
The trick is to have cars whose cumulative age is greater than your own!
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*Philippe Tusler - El Toro, CA "MILOU" '57 MGA Roadster *
*A-Mail: <TUSLER@MP050> "TINTIN" '66 MG/MGB-GT *
*InterNet: TUSLER@MP050.MV-OC.unisys.com "N/A" '88 ISUZU Trooper*
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