Starting a Fire with Air! Fire Pistons / Mr. Denjiro’s Happy Energy!

DENJIRO: Take a look at what I have here. There’s some cotton inside this pipe. Watch what happens when I push down hard on the piston.
GIRL: There was a flame!
DENJIRO: Suddenly compressing the air inside the pipe raises the temperature, and that’s why the cotton caught fire. So why does the temperature rise when you compress air? Temperature is directly related to the kinetic energy of molecules. Think of this ball as an air molecule and this board as a piston. Let’s keep the piston still. I’m going to throw the ball at it. As you can see, the ball bounces back, but watch what happens when we move the piston. I’m going to throw the ball as he comes running toward me. The ball bounced back with great force. This means that quickly pushing the piston in raises the air molecules’ kinetic energy, and the temperature rises as a result.
Mathematically speaking, if you condense room temperature air by 30 times, you get about 900 degrees Celsius. If you condense it by 40 times, you get about 1,000 degrees.
As a matter of fact, people used to start fires like this before the 16th century. Today, I’ve recreated a wooden fire starter that was used in Southeast Asia. Since wood is porous, air would leak out when the piston is pushed in, so the wooden tube of the fire starters are soaked with wax or oil. The stick has string wrapped around it to make it airtight. Tinder is placed on the tip of the stick. I’m going to insert the stick into the tube. And now, I’m going to jam the stick into the tube.
I’ve started a fire. This is what is known as a fire piston.
I hope energy will bring you all happiness. Our magic word is "Happy Energy!”