Science project ideas on the importance of oxidation to us.
Importance to Us of Oxidation (Burning)
We realize that burning is of great importance to us when we consider that it furnishes us with heat, light, and power. When properly controlled, it is one of our most useful servants; but when it is uncontrolled, it becomes one of our most destructive enemies. What burning Is We build a bonfire or a fire .in a stove for the heat it produces. Fires on hilltops have been used from the earliest times as night signals. What, therefore, may we say, is produced by burning? If the draft of the stove or furnace is good, the fire burns brightly; If ashes are permitted to collect below the firebox, the fire is likely to go out. What seems to be necessary for burning? Think of other examples of burning that are familiar to you. Does air always seem to be necessary? Is heat or light produced in every case? The following experiment will show that some of the air is used up in burning.
Oxidation Science Project Experiment I  Place a lighted candle on a cork floating in a pan of water and invert a glass jar over it. After the candle stops burning, the water rises in the jar to take the place of the air that was used up. The part of the air that is used in burning is called oxygen, and the uniting of the oxygen with the substance which is being burned (fuel) is called oxidation.
Oxidation Science Project Experiment II To find out if any new substance is produced in burning, burn a piece of charcoal (carbon)  over the mouth of a test tube containing lime water. Shake the lime water. What is the result? This milky appearance in the lime water is the test for a gas called carbon dioxide. It is evident, therefore, that in the burning of carbon the carbon disappears and there is produced a new substance called carbon dioxide, a gas made by the combination of carbon with the oxygen of the air. Experiments have been performed which show that the weight of the carbon dioxide formed is exactly equal to the weight of the carbon which was burned plus the weight of the oxygen used. This combination of carbon and oxygen is accompanied by heat and light.
A change in which a new kind of substance is formed is called a chemical change. Carbon and oxygen are simple substances which by no method yet discovered have been separated into anything else. Carbon dioxide, on the other hand, may be shown to be composed of carbon and oxygen combined in a definite proportion. Carbon dioxide is a gas that will prevent burning and is therefore an entirely different substance from its constituents, namely, carbon which is a solid and oxygen which is necessary for burning.
Substances, like carbon and oxygen, which cannot be separated into two or more substances are called elements. Some of the common elements are nitrogen, hydrogen, sulphur, phosphorus, iron, copper, sodium, potassium, chlorine, and silicon. Substances like carbon dioxide are called compounds. Water is a compound composed of the two elements, hydrogen and oxygen. Starch is a compound of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Lime stone is a compound containing the elements, calcium, carbon, and oxygen. Almost all substances we know of are compounds of two or more of about a dozen elements. Altogether about 80 elements have been discovered, but many of these occur in very small quantities or are not found in common compounds.  A, gas inlet ; B, air chamber ; F, air inlet ; G, tube containing mixture of gas and air ; C, outlet of gas mixture.
Explain: 
(1) The failure of a furnace to burn if ashes are not removed
(2) The failure of a wood fire to burn if wood is not arranged loosely
(3) The reason for the holes at the base of a lamp or of a Bunsen burner
(4) Why firemen have more difficulty in checking a big fire when wind is blowing hard (5) Construction of a gas stove burner.
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