--- title: The Chemistry of Matches (In Super Slow Motion) | TIME description: To fire up the grill or the gas stove, we often reach for a match. It turns out there’s a lot of chemistry going on to make those little wooden wonders work. The best way to find out about the chemistry of burning matches is to watch it in ultra-slow canonical: https://time.com/video/S6OFUFG4/ og:title: The Chemistry of Matches (In Super Slow Motion) og:description: To fire up the grill or the gas stove, we often reach for a match. It turns out there’s a lot of chemistry going on to make those little wooden wonders work. The best way to find out about the chemistry of burning matches is to watch it in ultra-slow og:url: https://time.com/video/S6OFUFG4/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/S6OFUFG4/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Chemistry of Matches (In Super Slow Motion) twitter:description: To fire up the grill or the gas stove, we often reach for a match. It turns out there’s a lot of chemistry going on to make those little wooden wonders work. The best way to find out about the chemistry of burning matches is to watch it in ultra-slow twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/S6OFUFG4/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # The Chemistry of Matches (In Super Slow Motion) > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: The Chemistry of Matches (In Super Slow Motion) [Watch (HLS stream): The Chemistry of Matches (In Super Slow Motion)](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/S6OFUFG4.m3u8) (2:02)  _Published 2016-02-23. To fire up the grill or the gas stove, we often reach for a match. It turns out there’s a lot of chemistry going on to make those little wooden wonders work. The best way to find out about the chemistry of burning matches is to watch it in ultra-slow_ --- Jul 27, 2023 7:41 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Nobel Chemistry Prize Awarded to 3 for ‘Click Chemistry’ Breakthrough Used in Cancer Drugs](/video/PrCwgakg/) ### Nobel Chemistry Prize Awarded to 3 for ‘Click Chemistry’ Breakthrough Used in Cancer Drugs [The Chemistry of Grilling](/video/SYIOYHqt/) ### The Chemistry of Grilling [The Chemistry of Sriracha](/video/Li4OYHep/) ### The Chemistry of Sriracha --- ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] The head of of a match uses antimony trisulfide for fuel, potassium chlorate helps that fuel burn, and it's basically the key to ignition, while ammonium phosphate prevents the match from smoking too much when it's extinguished. Was helps the flame travel down the matchstick and glue holds all the stuff together. The dye, well, that just makes it look pretty. On the striking surface, there's powdered glass for friction and red phosphorous to ignite the flame. Now the fun stuff. Striking a match against the powdered glass on the matchbox creates friction. Heat from this friction converts the red phosphorous into white phosphorous. That white phosphorous is extremely volatile and reacts with oxygen in the air causing it to ignite. All this heat ignites the potassium chlorate, creating the flame you see here. Oxidizers, like potassium chlorate, help fuels burn by giving them more oxygen. This oxygen combines with antimony trisulfide to produce a long- lasting Is in flames so you have enough time to light a candle. The whole thing is coated with paraffin wax, which helps the flame travel down the match. Just don't burn the house down. As antimony oxidizes sulfur oxides form, creating that burnt match scent. The smoke you're seeing is actually tiny unburned particles Resulting from an incomplete combustion. Individually, they're a little bit too small to see, but grouped together, they form smoke. There's also some water vapor in there. By the way, all of the stuff that we're explaining in 90 seconds, it all happens within tenths of a second. Chemistry is fast! [ MUSIC ] For more information be sure to check out Compound Interests' awesome infographic and be sure to check out UltraSlo for more incredible slow motion footage. And hey, thanks for watching. [ MUSIC ] ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The Chemistry of Matches (In Super Slow Motion)","description":"To fire up the grill or the gas stove, we often reach for a match. It turns out there’s a lot of chemistry going on to make those little wooden wonders work. 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