Can someone try and explain what fire is to me? Sounds soft but its been troubling me as to describing it most people will respond with its properties or effects. But not an actual detailed and reasoned explanation of what it actually is. Peoples of old considered it an element something which cant be broken into other parts.
I dont want to make any further comment on my current thoughts on the subject till someone - hopefully. Makes it clearer for me!
Fire is just a chemical reaction. It looks that way because electrons are in a hightend state (don't know the actual way of saying that in english). But there are these 'layers' in which an electron can be. Sort of like, energy levels, or states. And in a fire it's lifted up a level and releases energy in the form of light and heat.
Or that's what I always thought it was. Something like that anyways.
And in a fire it's lifted up a level and releases energy in the form of light and heat.
You were so close! The elecrtrons release energy when they fall, not when they rise. The chemical reaction (combustion, in this case) forces an electron into a higher orbital. This state is very unstable for the electron, because it doesn't have anything to keep it up.
So it "falls" back down to its old orbital. But in order to do this, it must release some of its energy, which we perceive as light.
Possum was correct; the state of matter that makes up a flame is known as "lasma".
The elecrtrons release energy when they fall, not when they rise. The chemical reaction (combustion, in this case) forces an electron into a higher orbital. This state is very unstable for the electron, because it doesn't have anything to keep it up.
O well, close enough :P Guess I should have gone to school longer than just the three weeks.
What About Fire? The flame of a burning candle is ionized, as we now know, and thus a plasma.
So... yeah. It's definitly plasma.
Even wikipedia agrees:
A flame (from Latin flamma) is the visible (light-emitting) gaseous part of a fire. It is caused by a highly exothermic reaction (for example, combustion, a self-sustaining oxidation reaction) taking place in a thin zone. If a fire is hot enough to ionize the gaseous components, it can become a plasma.
Fire itself dosen't come from the objetc that it surroundes/ engulfs. Instead the fire is simply around it - it reacts with the hot gases given off by the heated object.
As to what fire is, it's just energy, mainly in the form of light and heat.
Do you trust someone actually taking a course on AP chemistry?
Fire is a result of a combustion reaction (hydrocarbon+O2 -> H20+CO2)
Because water and carbon dioxide are the products, they are in the gaseous form. Plasma is like lightning, electrons extremely energized and often in are Million degrees hot. Because water and carbon dioxide aren't electrified nor millions degrees hot, fire is not plasma. The flame color is determined by what you are burning, short hydrocarbons give a blue flame, while long complex carbohydrates (like wood) give a red flame due to the amount of energy being released into the system. (blue gives off more energy due to the blue wavelength, which closer to ultraviolet)
