Upon discovering that not all our members had witnessed the blinding glory of burning magnesium, we acquired several strips, and fixed this sad fact.

This was initially intended to be a simple observation, but mid process, we noticed several interesting things:

1. The magnesium was much harder to ignite without first cutting the tip into several flanges to increase surface area.
2. The magnesium, once burning, stopped burning about a centimeter from the pliers it was held by.
3. When first heated, parts of the magnesium strip became either more or less reflective.

The first observations/annoyance was easily remedied: We flanged the end, and it became vastly easier to light.

The second one puzzled us a bit more: Why would it suddenly stop burning? This wasn't a single event either, all 4 of the strips did this. Later, when discussing this odd phenomena, someone suggested that it may be due to the metal pliers conducting away heat. To test this, we wrapped tape around and over one end of the strip, and used this tape to hold it. When we lit this new strip, the magnesium not only burned fully, it lit the tape on fire!

The third thing remains a mystery, and may become the subject of a future test.