Originally Posted by rpenmanparker

Magnesium burns crazy hot, but it takes a lot to get it started. You don't just hold a match to it like newspaper if it is thick. The very high heat conduction efficiency of it takes the heat of the flame source away too fast for the material to catch fire. In the chem lab experiment mentioned above, the thin strips couldn't dissipate enough heat to prevent combustion. The main problem with it is how brittle it is.