Fire
Fire is hot, right? But just how hot? Is the heat from a single bar of an electric fire hotter than, say, a bonfire? And more specifically, what would happen if I poked something through the ‘protective’ metal grill and onto the element?

Thus my 8 year old mind reasoned that the cellophane wrapper of my stick of rock would be a useful tool to use in this experiment. I unwrapped a length, and pressed it against the element. After about two seconds, the cellophane caught fire, and rather enthusiastically.

“Oh shit”, was the thought running through my head. I had noticed my mum extinguishing matches by giving them a shake after she’s lit a cigarette, so thought I’d give that a go. Result: A piece of cellophane detached itself from the rest of the wrapping and fell onto the sheepskin rug.

From this small and simple experiment I gauged two things:

1) Never to do anything as stupid again, and;
2) As a general rule, Sheepskin rugs manufactured in the 1970s do not have flame retardant qualities.
( Davros' Granddad a voice of calm reason in a world of spastics., Mon 28 Jul 2008, 13:30, 1 reply)

Me too
I once did the same thing when i was probably around the same age although i had no real reason to do it and that instead of cellophane wraping i used a short metal rod.

Result: A load bang and fire stopped working...mysteriously
(Masterb3ta, Tue 29 Jul 2008, 19:27, closed)