Burning Peanut M&Ms

Did you know that if you focus the light of a magnifying glass on a peanut M&M it will first sweat, then blister and finally catch on fire? Did you know that the flames will be 2 inches high? I didn't know that either. But I wanted to share with you.

We've been studying astronomy in science and are learning about the sun. So to show the strength of the sun's rays, we took our magnifying lenses outside. We burned the M&Ms, dry grass, bark chips and melted some nasty gum that had been squished on the sidewalk for a few months.  One of my sons would like us to cook this way for the next week.  I told him we'd try s'mores, but that's as much as I'm willing to commit!