I had a look around on Google but still confused. Why can I start a fire with a flint rod and a knife. How are the sparks made and what are they.
In: 10
Steel is strong (it can hold lots of weight), but it isn’t necessarily very hard (it can be scratched easily). Any rock harder than steel can potentially be used to create sparks.
What happens is that when you strike the rock and steel, the harder rock will cause tiny flakes of steel to chip off. Because steel is strong, the bonds holding it together have lots of energy stored in them. When the flake is chipped off, this energy turns into heat, causing the little flake of steel to get very hot. The flakes are so hot that they glow red or yellow, and these flakes are the “sparks” we see coming off the flint and steel. If a hot flake of steel falls onto something flammable, it can start a fire.
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