Start a fire with water in this simple science experiment

The idea that you could light a fire using water sounds crazy, right?

But this is a totally real, and totally cool, science experiment that you can do at home, to create fire from water in a bottle.

We found this backyard experiment on brusspup's YouTube channel.

All you need are two pieces of computer paper, water, a black marker (like a Sharpie), a curved water bottle (like a POM juice bottle), and a sunny day.

It uses the same method that evil kids use to burn ants with a magnifying glass.

You use the curved bottle as you would a magnifying glass, to focus the sunlight onto the black spot on the paper until it's hot enough to ignite. It wouldn't work on just plain white paper because the color white reflects light, while the color black absorbs light (and its accompanying heat). That heat - when combined with the flammable paper - become fire.

Try it for yourself, but be careful - this is real fire and will set off alarms if lit in a contained space. Find a nice outdoor area for your experiment.

Steps:

1. Fill the bottle with water.

2. Hold the bottle over the black rectangle until it burns a hole through the paper.

3. Put the second piece of paper on top of the first.

4. Wave the papers up and down to get oxygen flowing through the fire.

5. Drop it like it's hot.

See the full video of science tricks on brusspup's YouTube here.