Making Napalm out of Legos 

Abstract 

“Making NAPALM out of LEGOS??”, an experiment that was tested to see whether napalm can be made via Legos and how effective it was.  A medium size Lego set was used for this experiment. It was dissolved in acetone and poured into a makeshift flamethrower. Results showed that the napalm was effective but not too effective like regular napalm. This is extremely dangerous and should not be replicated.  

Introduction 

Napalm was invented at Harvard University in 1942, during World War 2. At this time, Harvard was doing research on incendiary weapons and bombs. Napalm works by sticking to a surfaces or targets, burning at high temperatures when ignited and cause burns, cause people to be deprived of oxygen and death.  

Hypothesis 

Napalm will be made of Legos and evaluated to see how efficient it is.  

Materials & Methods 

To test this experiment and conclude, the following will be needed: 

• Lego set (preferably a medium size one) 

• A glass bowl 

• Acetone 

• Long Tweezers 

• Makeshift Flamethrower 

• Fan 

• Torch 

Before starting anything with chemicals, the Lego set must be built first. The Lego set built was Obi-Wan’s Starfighter from Lego Star Wars. Once the set is built, a glass bowl and acetone were brought out and acetone was poured into the bowl to put the ship in it. Upon hitting the acetone, the Lego parts begin to change color now must wait for the set to fully dissolve. In the meanwhile, use the tweezers to stir the ship in the acetone to make sure everything is dissolved. After a complete day, there should be nothing but small chips and liquid in the bowl. To get rid of the chips and to only have the liquid, put the bowl towards a fan to evaporate the acetone to be left with the liquid. After another day, there should be a greyish-brown liquid with no chips. To test it, the liquid is poured into a cup and light it on fire with a torch. Afterwards, the napalm is poured into the flamethrower. This flamethrower is connected to a CO2 tank which pumps air to the fire extinguisher that it is connected to. To test the complete product, cinder blocks on top of wood with characters from the Lego set were set up outside.  

Results 

Results show that the napalm is extremely flammable as it catches fire very quickly. The napalm was able to stick to the blocks, wood and characters with ease. Igniting the napalm took some time but once it got going, it did not stop.  

Discussion 

The results matched the hypothesis although there were limitations that showed up. For example, the air outside made the napalm not burn for a long time. To counteract this, more acetone could’ve been added to make the napalm get ignited easier. 

Conclusion 

This test showed that Legos can be used to make DIY napalm. This idea can sound good in theory, but it is very unsafe and should not be repeated unless you are a professional or with a professional.  

References  

TKOR. “Making NAPALM Out of LEGOS??” YouTube, 17 Nov. 2024, www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZjcygBzlXc