hey guys welcome back today we’re in the
backyard with the mega solar scorcher
some of you long-term fans will remember
this thing because about five years ago
it’s the project that launched my
channel it’s made from the front of a
giant TV screen and its whole purpose is
to take sunlight and concentrate it into
a solar death ray so powerful it can
melt holes in concrete so if it can do
that is it powerful enough to ignite
thermite well today we got blue skies
and the sun is shining and Killian
Fitzpatrick really wants to know so
Cillian we’re doing this experiment for
you now Killian has a good point guys
thermite burns at about four to five
thousand degrees Fahrenheit which is
extremely hot but it’s also very very
difficult to ignite usually sparklers or
some kind of magnesium stripper used to
ignite thermite because it requires an
ignition point around 3000 Fahrenheit to
even get the reaction started at all now
I know that the solar scorcher will get
somewhere up around 2,000 degrees
Fahrenheit because I have used it to
melt copper but will it be enough to
actually light off thermite that’s the
purpose of this experiment today so to
get this experiment started today we’re
going to mix up a fresh batch of
thermite that’s a three to one ratio of
iron oxide and aluminum powder we’re
going to take all that in a terracotta
planter pot lined with aluminum foil and
set it on a cinder block to a point
where it matches the focal point of our
solar death beam and at that point we’re
going to set the frame stand back and
watch what happen now the Sun is hiding
behind a cloud right now so let’s take
the opportunity mix up a batch of
thermite and get everything in position
so we’re all ready to go in a pops back
out funny story the reason my solar
scorcher is marred up the way that it is
from that fourth of July experiment we
did with black powder they made the big
mushroom clouds and spewed out all kinds
of black powder ass I was like four
years ago okay
[Music]
let’s just touch more for kicks
[Music]
[Music]
the aluminum should help give a little
bit more reaction time so the thermite
gets a little hotter before it goes
through alright guys it’s time to focus
and light up our thermite I got a little
jar over here filled up with thermite to
the top I’ve got it set up on some two
by twos with a little terracotta base
underneath I’m going to now take the
lens from our solar scorcher and tip it
over until it focuses on to the thermite
and I’m going to hold it there until it
lights off if it does it all so get my
little wood two-by-twos lined up here
with a hole in the center that’s going
to go right over top and it should allow
our molten metal to flow down the bottom
all right let’s light it up and see if
we can get to work here we go
I can already see it’s going to focus
here we go in three two one
Oh tank ooh wow wow wow oh my goodness
come look at this look at the way this
is glowing the pot is cracked everything
is on fire we got a ton of metal down
here
rooo dog a look at that pot I’d say that
wasn’t success
[Music]
Wow oh my good look at that pieces of
wood are charred and burned and we are
left with a cool metal residue when that
cools down we’re going to have to chop
it open but that should be iron molten
iron and look at that our pot is just
disintegrated absolutely look at that
super brittle absolutely destroyed that
wood I can’t believe that wood just went
up no no time flat completely charged
and this is still glowing that was fun
let’s do that again
guys I’m a foot away from this right now
and it’s been about three minutes since
this reaction went off it’s still
incredibly incredibly hot and you could
see this iron is still glowing my
terracotta pot is completely destroyed
it’s a really good thing that I took the
solar scorcher and ran when I did
because there was a shower of sparks
spewing at about four feet in every
direction and it was burning about 5,000
degrees Fahrenheit this is absolutely
amazing with the ignition point of
thermite being so high I was expecting
quite a bit of a delay maybe 30 seconds
to a minute before it lit off but no
that thing was instant like the second
the focal point made contact the
thermite went off and I have to say I’m
actually quite pleased about those
results let’s do it again
I got another pot pretty good amount of
thermite in there as well I’m using our
old block here just kind of put them in
a v-shape so we can set this down over
top I’ve built this up about as high as
I feel comfortable there’s no way to
support it up and really see the lava
flow like we did before but at this
point I’m just really excited to do it
again oh look it’s actually so hot the
wood just caught on fire
oh well flames are not going to ignite
our thermite so I’m not really worried
about that too much we’ll just leave
that there set the solar scorcher up and
go for round two
[Music]
man it was a good thing I got a tire in
a hurry you have to make sure I do that
again well dang it oh dang it I just
lost a whole bunch of our sir my fare
salvage what you can
okay well we’re down about an inch foot
no worries sure we’ll still make it work
alright let’s see if we get that to work
again here we go up the focal point
isn’t quite as concentrated this time I
think it’s a little bit too high
excellent folks
nice nice nice okay that that was cool
look at that
you don’t impress me about that if all
the metal came out into the dish under
underneath I thought it was going to
spew out to the side here and overflow
but it didn’t perfectly capture at all
[Music]
you
[Music]
and looking down that pot there you can
see all of the is reacted there’s
nothing left
give these a little bit down the corner
but I went through that hole
filled up the gaps in the bottom wow
that was great
these are the water like fused in there
that’s where all the molten metal in and
it’s when it filled all the gaps that
were there previously which makes me
wonder could you possibly make a mold
out of sand or something of that nature
and use thermite to cast iron maybe an
idea for another project so let me know
in the comments below
all right guys a bit about 20 minutes
since our second reaction took place
it’s had a chance to cool down so just
for fun I went and grabbed a hammer so
we could crack this metal open and see
what happened inside this is still
surprisingly hot you can see the
terracotta base here stuck to something
there that’s well cracked cracked if I
hit that a little bit and you get it
just a flake off over that so what are
we left with on the inside here we’ve
got big globules of this what looks like
metal if we hit it it’s actually pretty
solid I mean you’re just cracking and
that one’s split in half that was iron I
wouldn’t expect it would be splitting in
half like that but look right there you
can see a little bead of iron and little
beads of iron throughout what appears to
be metal almost looks like a metal bone
if you look at a cross-section of that
you can see hundreds of little bubbles
on the inside which is kind of cool but
it’s not solid is it please still toasty
warm cool down quite a bit but that’s
still quite toasty
[Music]
oh look in there that right there is a
big glob of iron that’s close it harder
than the other ones we’ll go broke it
though here’s another piece they all
seem to be hidden inside it’s like
what’s inside this one what’s inside
this one so that’s pretty cool guys we
started this experiment today on a quest
to find out whether we can use sunlight
to ignite thermite which has a very very
high ignition point we mix three parts
of iron oxide with one part aluminum
powder to generate a homemade thermite
mixture then we brought back the solar
scorcher from a previous project to
concentrate the rays of sunlight into a
solar beam of death the question we came
here to answer today was whether that
would be enough to ignite thermite and
after these experiments today I think we
can all conclude the answer is a
resounding yes not only will it ignite
thermite but you saw in the first
experiment it lit off within seconds and
even on the second experiment even
though the focal point wasn’t ideal it
was still enough heat to initiate the
reaction and it’s only 85 degrees
Fahrenheit today well guys now you know
how to harness the power of the Sun to
initiate a thermite reaction right in
the comfort of your own backyard but
don’t do it in your backyard leave that
to me
so and a huge thanks to Killian
Fitzpatrick for suggesting this
experiment today Killian you can go
check your youtube inbox and send a
twenty five bucks
that’s it for this experiment guys
thanks so much for joining me and I’ll
be looking for you the next video
talk to you that hello hood just
personally flames like boom I got some
of my clothes just not good
you
[Music]
backyard with the mega solar scorcher
some of you long-term fans will remember
this thing because about five years ago
it’s the project that launched my
channel it’s made from the front of a
giant TV screen and its whole purpose is
to take sunlight and concentrate it into
a solar death ray so powerful it can
melt holes in concrete so if it can do
that is it powerful enough to ignite
thermite well today we got blue skies
and the sun is shining and Killian
Fitzpatrick really wants to know so
Cillian we’re doing this experiment for
you now Killian has a good point guys
thermite burns at about four to five
thousand degrees Fahrenheit which is
extremely hot but it’s also very very
difficult to ignite usually sparklers or
some kind of magnesium stripper used to
ignite thermite because it requires an
ignition point around 3000 Fahrenheit to
even get the reaction started at all now
I know that the solar scorcher will get
somewhere up around 2,000 degrees
Fahrenheit because I have used it to
melt copper but will it be enough to
actually light off thermite that’s the
purpose of this experiment today so to
get this experiment started today we’re
going to mix up a fresh batch of
thermite that’s a three to one ratio of
iron oxide and aluminum powder we’re
going to take all that in a terracotta
planter pot lined with aluminum foil and
set it on a cinder block to a point
where it matches the focal point of our
solar death beam and at that point we’re
going to set the frame stand back and
watch what happen now the Sun is hiding
behind a cloud right now so let’s take
the opportunity mix up a batch of
thermite and get everything in position
so we’re all ready to go in a pops back
out funny story the reason my solar
scorcher is marred up the way that it is
from that fourth of July experiment we
did with black powder they made the big
mushroom clouds and spewed out all kinds
of black powder ass I was like four
years ago okay
[Music]
let’s just touch more for kicks
[Music]
[Music]
the aluminum should help give a little
bit more reaction time so the thermite
gets a little hotter before it goes
through alright guys it’s time to focus
and light up our thermite I got a little
jar over here filled up with thermite to
the top I’ve got it set up on some two
by twos with a little terracotta base
underneath I’m going to now take the
lens from our solar scorcher and tip it
over until it focuses on to the thermite
and I’m going to hold it there until it
lights off if it does it all so get my
little wood two-by-twos lined up here
with a hole in the center that’s going
to go right over top and it should allow
our molten metal to flow down the bottom
all right let’s light it up and see if
we can get to work here we go
I can already see it’s going to focus
here we go in three two one
Oh tank ooh wow wow wow oh my goodness
come look at this look at the way this
is glowing the pot is cracked everything
is on fire we got a ton of metal down
here
rooo dog a look at that pot I’d say that
wasn’t success
[Music]
Wow oh my good look at that pieces of
wood are charred and burned and we are
left with a cool metal residue when that
cools down we’re going to have to chop
it open but that should be iron molten
iron and look at that our pot is just
disintegrated absolutely look at that
super brittle absolutely destroyed that
wood I can’t believe that wood just went
up no no time flat completely charged
and this is still glowing that was fun
let’s do that again
guys I’m a foot away from this right now
and it’s been about three minutes since
this reaction went off it’s still
incredibly incredibly hot and you could
see this iron is still glowing my
terracotta pot is completely destroyed
it’s a really good thing that I took the
solar scorcher and ran when I did
because there was a shower of sparks
spewing at about four feet in every
direction and it was burning about 5,000
degrees Fahrenheit this is absolutely
amazing with the ignition point of
thermite being so high I was expecting
quite a bit of a delay maybe 30 seconds
to a minute before it lit off but no
that thing was instant like the second
the focal point made contact the
thermite went off and I have to say I’m
actually quite pleased about those
results let’s do it again
I got another pot pretty good amount of
thermite in there as well I’m using our
old block here just kind of put them in
a v-shape so we can set this down over
top I’ve built this up about as high as
I feel comfortable there’s no way to
support it up and really see the lava
flow like we did before but at this
point I’m just really excited to do it
again oh look it’s actually so hot the
wood just caught on fire
oh well flames are not going to ignite
our thermite so I’m not really worried
about that too much we’ll just leave
that there set the solar scorcher up and
go for round two
[Music]
man it was a good thing I got a tire in
a hurry you have to make sure I do that
again well dang it oh dang it I just
lost a whole bunch of our sir my fare
salvage what you can
okay well we’re down about an inch foot
no worries sure we’ll still make it work
alright let’s see if we get that to work
again here we go up the focal point
isn’t quite as concentrated this time I
think it’s a little bit too high
excellent folks
nice nice nice okay that that was cool
look at that
you don’t impress me about that if all
the metal came out into the dish under
underneath I thought it was going to
spew out to the side here and overflow
but it didn’t perfectly capture at all
[Music]
you
[Music]
and looking down that pot there you can
see all of the is reacted there’s
nothing left
give these a little bit down the corner
but I went through that hole
filled up the gaps in the bottom wow
that was great
these are the water like fused in there
that’s where all the molten metal in and
it’s when it filled all the gaps that
were there previously which makes me
wonder could you possibly make a mold
out of sand or something of that nature
and use thermite to cast iron maybe an
idea for another project so let me know
in the comments below
all right guys a bit about 20 minutes
since our second reaction took place
it’s had a chance to cool down so just
for fun I went and grabbed a hammer so
we could crack this metal open and see
what happened inside this is still
surprisingly hot you can see the
terracotta base here stuck to something
there that’s well cracked cracked if I
hit that a little bit and you get it
just a flake off over that so what are
we left with on the inside here we’ve
got big globules of this what looks like
metal if we hit it it’s actually pretty
solid I mean you’re just cracking and
that one’s split in half that was iron I
wouldn’t expect it would be splitting in
half like that but look right there you
can see a little bead of iron and little
beads of iron throughout what appears to
be metal almost looks like a metal bone
if you look at a cross-section of that
you can see hundreds of little bubbles
on the inside which is kind of cool but
it’s not solid is it please still toasty
warm cool down quite a bit but that’s
still quite toasty
[Music]
oh look in there that right there is a
big glob of iron that’s close it harder
than the other ones we’ll go broke it
though here’s another piece they all
seem to be hidden inside it’s like
what’s inside this one what’s inside
this one so that’s pretty cool guys we
started this experiment today on a quest
to find out whether we can use sunlight
to ignite thermite which has a very very
high ignition point we mix three parts
of iron oxide with one part aluminum
powder to generate a homemade thermite
mixture then we brought back the solar
scorcher from a previous project to
concentrate the rays of sunlight into a
solar beam of death the question we came
here to answer today was whether that
would be enough to ignite thermite and
after these experiments today I think we
can all conclude the answer is a
resounding yes not only will it ignite
thermite but you saw in the first
experiment it lit off within seconds and
even on the second experiment even
though the focal point wasn’t ideal it
was still enough heat to initiate the
reaction and it’s only 85 degrees
Fahrenheit today well guys now you know
how to harness the power of the Sun to
initiate a thermite reaction right in
the comfort of your own backyard but
don’t do it in your backyard leave that
to me
so and a huge thanks to Killian
Fitzpatrick for suggesting this
experiment today Killian you can go
check your youtube inbox and send a
twenty five bucks
that’s it for this experiment guys
thanks so much for joining me and I’ll
be looking for you the next video
talk to you that hello hood just
personally flames like boom I got some
of my clothes just not good
you
[Music]
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