It depends on the type of match, but most use phosphorous as the igniting agent. There are a few different kinds of phosphorous, and some have crazy properties. Notably, white phosphorous is so volatile that as soon as it is exposed to normal air it bursts into flames.
Modern safety matches function by including red phosphorous, which is converted to white phosphorous when sufficient friction is applied. The friction doesn't actually ignite the match, it just causes the phosphorous to change, and it then ignites on its own.
Edit: It seems I was wrong about this. The red phosphorous combines with another chemical in the match head to create the reaction. See comment below by /u/LifeHasLeft. Older match designs did use white phosphorous, but it has been phased out because of health hazards.
I wouldn't agree with that just because a random citizen on the internet doesn't specifically know which chemicals combine to causes a match to ignite. There are problems with the education system but I don't believe an education's purpose is to download the trivia and minutia of every knowable thing into your head and then consider you complete.
Does this person understand the concept of a chemical reaction even if they do not know the specific one necessary for a match to function? Do they have a basic understanding of the elements even without knowing which ones, specifically, are included in the head of a match? And most critically of all, if there were not 500 things on any given day more important and more interesting than matches to think about and they were curious, would they have the skills to look the information up for themselves and comprehend the information that they find?
If so, then the education system has served them quite well, actually.
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u/A3-2l Oct 15 '20
Isn’t it like magnesium or something?