reply to post by Nutter
Those are good questions, Nutter, and I believe that many other readers share these concerns.
Aluminothermics get much hotter than combustion of hydrocarbons in air but they produce about ten times LESS heat per unit weight than burning
hydrocarbons.
Think of temperature as the intensity of the heat and the joules as the total quantity. A match is much hotter than room temperature water, but try to
melt a block of ice with a match versus a large amount of room temperature water.
Because thermite consists of iron oxide and aluminum, it has its own oxidizer and that is part of the equation, “heat per unit weight.” When
something is burned in air, the weight of the oxygen used in burning is not included, so the heat per unit weight goes up. Hydrogen burning in air has
the highest heat per unit weight.
Jones claimed a super-thermite based on what he thinks he found, so that is why we focus on thermite. Thermites don’t need air to react although
they work in air. The first thing Jones must do to prove thermite is to show the reaction in the absence of air.
Many incendiaries do not have their own oxygen source. Napalm and white phosphorus are nasty incendiaries that rely on air as do FAE devices, which
are explosives.
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