Science Experiment-Rusting

For science a few days ago, I rusted some metal. It was almost exiting as the time I grew some weeds! ;D I took some steel wool, put it in a bowl, poured some water over it, then let it sit for a few days. Although the experiment was very simple, the conept behind oxidation is very complex. Early scientists believed that rust was actually the metal burning, just at a slow speed. He thought that the rust was the residue left behind when all of the "phlogiston" burned away. Now, we know that rust is actually the chemical reaction between iron particles and air. Below, I have uploaded some pictures of the rusted steel wool.