In article , Doug Goncz says...

When the work is negative, electrons available at the surface attract hydrogen
(H), which is slightly postively charged by it's "bent" configuration in the
water molecules. When hydrogen is an ion, it is H+. It cannot get any more
positively charged than that, because it consists only of a proton nucleus, no
neutrons, and a single electron orbiting the proton, or according to quantum
mechanics, likely to be found near the proton according to a certain probablity
density function which is surprisingly, quite easy to find.

So these hydrogen atoms leave their existing oxygen partners, and it is those
oxygen atoms you see bubbling to the surface. Oxygen is negatively charged,
usually. When the H combines with the O in Fe2O3, it forms H2O and "recycles"
into solution, where it can be stripped again, forming another bubble nucleus
of oxygen. And on and on. So the H shuttles back and forth, while the O in the
rust goes to bound O in H2O, then is released as O2 when the H is pulled, yet
again, to the negative electrode. Ambient heat "stirs" the water near the
electrode.

Another way to remember this is the acronym LEO GER.

Loss of Electrons is Oxidation
Gain of Electrons is Reduction.

If you want to try to reduce the oxide at the
surface of your steel part, you need to give it
more electrons. So you attach the electron
pipe (negative wire) to it.

I am not going to disclose in this article the chemistry of a thermite
reaction, because one can easily melt through a steel laboratory desk top, set
a house on fire (they were used as incendiary weapons in WWI, destroy an engine
block, or weld steel rail,

Then there's the famous MIT story. The students there were angry at
the trolley motormen because they sometimes would not stop to pick
up students, and sometimes would not wait long enough for the
crowd to exit the trolley before starting up again.

So those bad MIT guys got together a group to churn the doors
by climbing on and off the trolley for quite some time while
they packed around the steel trolley wheels with a mixture of
aluminum and iron oxide powder. Which was then lit off.

The motorman was rather suprised to see that his vehicle was
rendered immobile. They finally found it easiest to rip
up that part of the rails when they removed the car.

Urban legend or not? You all be the judge.

Jim

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