Game Theory: Mario's Secret Fire Power is... Rocket Fuel!

The host demonstrates Mario using fire flowers and raises the fundamental question of what Mario's fireballs actually are, moving beyond the simple explanation of 'fire.'

Super Mario 3D World was recently released on Nintendo Switch, providing a timely reason to examine this iconic power-up that has appeared in nearly every Mario game since the original Super Mario Brothers.

• Fireballs are affected by gravity and bounce off the ground despite being flame • Fireballs can burn underwater, which contradicts normal fire behavior • These observations require explanation beyond 'pure fire'

In 2017, the host collaborated with Grant Thompson from The King of Random to test thermite as a possible explanation, discovering it could burn underwater in tennis balls.

While thermite does burn underwater, it leaves behind molten iron and slag metal that should be visible throughout the Mushroom Kingdom after Mario uses his fireballs, but this debris is never observed.

Fire is actually a chemical reaction, not a physical object. The flame is the hot gas produced by this reaction. Mario's fireballs must be something more complex than pure flame since they bounce like solid objects.

• Must create a flaming bouncing projectile • Must work underwater • Must be affected by gravity

Any explanation requires understanding the three ingredients of fire: heat, fuel, and an oxidizing agent. Most fires use oxygen from the air, but underwater fireballs suggest a different approach.

• Heat - the energy required to start and sustain combustion • Fuel - the substance being burned • Oxidizing agent - typically oxygen, but not always

Normally fire requires oxygen, which is why smothering with a blanket or using water or carbon dioxide extinguishes flames. Mario's underwater fireballs suggest a different oxidizing agent is being used.

While oxygen is the oxidizing agent 99% of the time, there exists a 1% case where alternative oxidizing agents are used. This is exactly what rocket scientists encounter in space where no oxygen exists.

Rockets in space must bring their own oxidizing agent since atmospheric oxygen is unavailable. The solution to Mario's fireballs lies in understanding how rocket propellants work.

• Nitrogen tetroxide - used in Apollo 11 lunar module • Ammonium perchlorate - used in rocket boosters with oxygen atoms available for electron acceptance • Liquid oxygen - used in NASA Space Shuttle RS-25 engines but requires extreme cryogenic storage at negative 240 Celsius

Unlike gaseous oxygen, ammonium perchlorate is a solid at room temperature, making it ideal for Mario's fireballs since solids are affected by gravity and can bounce.

Fire is a rapid reduction-oxidation (redox) reaction where fuel loses electrons and the oxidizing agent gains them. Oxygen's role is simply to accept these electrons from fuel.

Powdered aluminum serves as the fuel component, the same material used in thermite reactions and actual rocket propellants.

A binding agent is needed to hold together the aluminum powder and ammonium perchlorate into a cohesive projectile that can bounce.

DIY rocket fuel makers on YouTube combine aluminum powder and ammonium perchlorate with silicone rubber tubes from Home Depot to create bouncy rocket fuel.

In 2013, Virgin Galactic announced their suborbital spacecraft tests used fuel with synthetic rubber as a key ingredient, describing it as 'rubber-like' in official press releases.

The rubber component explains why Mario's fireballs bounce like rubber balls while simultaneously being rocket fuel, uniting all the required properties.

Mario's fireballs are composed of aluminum powder plus ammonium perchlorate plus silicone rubber binding agent—essentially an advanced form of rocket fuel.

• Burns continuously underwater because ammonium perchlorate provides its own oxygen • Bounces like a rubber ball due to silicone rubber binder • Works in vacuum-like conditions of Super Mario Galaxy • Deadly on contact with temperatures exceeding 5000 degrees Fahrenheit (2760 Celsius)

The only unexplained element remains why this rocket fuel emerges from a flower power-up rather than being collected from another source.

This explanation elegantly accounts for all observed properties of Mario's fireballs: their ability to burn underwater, bounce, affect gravity, and eliminate enemies on contact.

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