BillM wrote:
You could buy an old VW block ..

Grant


Check around the local VW shops. I've gotten busted blocks for hauling them
away.
VW blocks are not even close to pure magnesium. Lots of aluminum in them.
Shavings from milling VW blocks will burn, and you can get a block lit by
tossing it in the
middle of a big bonfire. Once it gets going you can get some pretty good
light bursts off of it
by putting a stream of water on it with a garden hose.

You want something spectacular, take a walnut size chunk of metallic sodium
and toss
it in a big puddle at night. Takes a bit for it to get to critical heat,
but when it goes
you want to be standing back a ways.

Bill




Students from my alma mater were the press and public's targets of blame
for a sodium incident which injured several people last month:

http://tinyurl.com/2nsvhc

Frankly, I'd rather believe that sodium wasn't dropped on the ground
there by students from MIT. The cardinal rule of "hacking" at that
school is to never do anything dangerous or to damage anyone's property.

Videos he

http://tinyurl.com/36yhuo

Jeff
--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
The speed of light is 1.98*10^14 fathoms per fortnight.