Technically speaking, of course,
aluminum powder is
cool shit. Due to the fact that
aluminum (or rather,
aluminium if you're from the
other side of the pond)
oxides tend to have
ridiculously negative heat of formation, interesting things can happen. Interesting to
male teenagers like myself, of course, because negative heat of formation means
energy is liberated when it is created. There are actually many
metal oxides that will work in thermite, and the reaction is usually called a
redox (
reduction/
oxidation) reaction, not a substitution one. Thermite is good for
burning holes in things and impromptu
welding
In any case, I didn't learn how to build this "
bomb" on the
internet ... I learned how in
AP Chemistry,
thank you very much.