Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

So I was doing this experiment, where we burned steel wool in a bunsen burner for a few seconds, and the sparks dispersed around the steel wool. After, we put the steel wool in a beaker that contains 100% oxygen and the steel wool lit up with sparks flying around.
After that, there was a crumbly material that was left over from the steel wool and the teacher said it was Fe3O4 but I'm wondering, wouldn't this reaction create Fe2O3 instead? How does the reaction create Fe3O4?

Hi ShineOnBeTheMan,

This sounds like a question that you should ask your teacher. Unless there's a factor that I'm missing, I would also expect iron to oxidize to Fe2O3 at high temperatures in the presence of 100% oxygen. Fe2O3 is more oxidized than Fe3O4 (3:2 oxygen/iron ratio vs. 4:3).