Fire syringe

Back to 4B - Heat and the first law
PIRA index: 4B70.10

Description

The adiabatic compression of gasses produces heat, enough to ignite some materials.

Equipment

• Fire syringe
• Small piece of flammable material with a lot of surface (e.g. lint, paper towel, etc)
• Practice

Instructions

Place flammable material in the barrel of the piston. Push the plunger with force and speed. With practice, the syringe won't break or fly off in a random direction. Observe the material ignite.

Note: a camera connected to the podium can be provided to allow big class to see the relatively small syringe.

Images & Movies

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  Figure1

Keywords

• fire syringe, lint, adiabatic compression