Gambit's Kinetic Powers Explained

This explaination comes from a chemistry student, and is only intended for fun, but it is as accurate as she can get it with her level of knowledge. Enjoy.

You've got to have some basic science stuff in here first, since otherwise this won't make sense.

To the left is a water molecule H2O. Energy is contained in the bonds between the molecules. It's released when they're broken, and in chain reactions (e.g. burning) some or all of it is re-used to form other bonds. This is called 'potential energy'.

Bonds need a continuous amount of energy to be applied, 'activation energy', to make or break them. Effectively, they need a certain amount of start up energy to make them vibrate fast enough that the atoms split apart or collide fast enough that they react together. The most common form of activation energy we see day-to-day is heat - from the sun, from cooking, etc.

What Gambit does is provide enough activation energy to release the potential energy in the bonds between the atoms and molecules in an item. Breaking a few sets of bonds releases enough potential energy to break more bonds, much like the action of striking a match provides enough energy for first the sulphur and then the matchstick to catch light.

In the case of the match, we see light and heat. This is leftover energy not being used for combustion which instead acts on the rest of the environment. In Gambit's case, items he's aggravating to the point where the bonds are destabilising also glow and give off heat.

The rate at which an atom or molecule is vibrating determines its colour - your blue jeans are vibrating less than your red shirt because light frequency is dependant on vibration speed. The lowest frequency of visible light is blue. The highest is red, which is why red lamps are used as heat lamps. Gambit's charged items glow a shade or red, which suggests a very intense degree of power.