The Chemistry of Fire
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 พ.ค. 2024
- What is fire? What is fire made of and how does it work? Here, we look at the inner workings of fire, blue flames, yellow flames and wood fires. If you have something to say about fire, chemistry, or science in general, post it in the comments.
Metal gauze trick from Smarter Every Day: / smartereveryday
Charcoal burning picture: Photo by Andrey Andreyev, free on Unsplash.com
Charcoal branches picture: Photo by Sung Jin Cho, free on Unsplash.com
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Three Twentysix Project Leader: Dr Andrew Robertson
Editor: Purple Saptari
3D Animations: Es Hiranpakorn
Graphic Design: Maria Sucianto
Media: Diyon Weeratunga
Chapters:
0:00 What is Fire?
0:25 Combustion Reaction
1:11 Bunsen Burner
2:22 Activation Energy
4:05 Products
5:04 Sequences of Reactions
6:20 Blue Flame
7:30 Yellow Flame
12:20 Liquid Flame
13:38 Candle Flame
14:45 Wood Fire
20:05 Are We Fire?
This video was produced at Kyushu University and supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP21K02904. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Kyushu University, JSPS or MEXT.
![[Vowel]물고기는 물에서 살아야 해🐟🤣Fish have to live in the water #funny](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/3G9MH063Cx4/mqdefault.jpg)
Even with a PhD in chemistry videos like this are still so much fun to watch. You do an amazing job of articulating answers to fundamental questions.
Is there really such a thing as a PHd in 'chemistry'? I think not.
@@HerbertTowerswhat?
With PhD in ChemE it is sometimes fun to watch them as well 😄
"You are, in a very real sense, a reaction zone." may just be my new favorite quote!
When i was a kiddie, i had an old Biology text book. And chapter 1 was "fire"... it took me a long time to grasp why it was there.
Cool story bro
You're the only one that satisfied my curiosity about fire with clear details about this process from start to finish. I was always curious when i strat any fire how it react the way it does especially when there are 2 flames coexisting at the same time it was mind blowing to me. Thank you sir
Thanks for your comment! Please share the video and let other people know it's out there.
That’s what she said
@@TerribleShmeltingAccident idiocy in its pure forms 😅
@@ThreeTwentysix The gauze will also allow the carbon to precipitate out and be very visible as a layer of black on the gauze
The power of chemistry...
Fun fact: the blobs of flames appear so viscous because they are actually very viscous. For gasses, as opposed to liquids, viscosity increases with temperature. In the old days, when there was no digital simulation available, modeling of combustion chambers was done using honey in water.
That sounds very interesting. I'd love to have a look at that, can you point me in the right direction? A quick google hasn't helped much.
I'm sure the honey/water would be a decent model for combustion products/air and the viscosity does increase with temperature, but I'm assuming the flame in a (rocket?) combustion chamber isn't nearly as viscous as that. Right? I'd love to check that out if it's the case.
@@ThreeTwentysix I've learned this bit from an old professor who was at retirement age already thirty years ago. The course was, loosely translated, "modeling for thermotechnical studies" whereas "modeling" was meant as actually building physical models of the reality. The course was fully centered on dimensionless numbers, so that you only need to match Prandtl and Reynolds (and a plethora of other) numbers, rather than single material properties. I've tried too to google it to get some decent source, but this I think is a topic that still has to be scanned out from some dusty engineering library collection 😊
Thanks. I'm going to take a look and see if I can find something. It would be very cool.
Only 126 subscribers???? That simply will not do!
Excellent explanation and demonstrations. I love that you examined various types of fires rather than just selecting one general case.
Thanks. Most accounts of fire stop short of solid fires, so I really wanted to include them. And you're right, more subscribers will mean bigger and better videos. Please share wherever you get the chance.
4:30 how does the heat look like on the molecular level? I thought heat is basically motion of the molecules, so how can radicals after recombining to co2 and h2o suddenly go faster? Where is the momentum coming from?
14.600+ subs...
@@misiumHeat is transfer of energy between systems. Added heat adds to total energy of the system, therefore kinetic energy of particles,and therefore their velocity increases. Simplifying physics ,their velocity needs to increase as energy added to the system will be of the kinetic type, as they are in motion and cannot,in this situation, accept this energy as potential or energy that would otherwise, for example, excite electrons (such as it happens in cholorphyll molecules after accepting energy of a photon).
Molecular composition of fire itself is highly dependent on the fuel type.
If we know the composition of the fuel and the atmosphere in which the combustion happens, we can easily figure it out.
Best explanation of fire in the entire TH-cam universe, I guess! Great video!
Thanks, I really appreciate it.
Incredible. When I was at senior/secondary school I was into my first year and we started to learn the basics of chemistry. I remember the teacher saying matter is in one of three states; gas, solid or liquid. I remember thinking about what he said and it got me wondering what fire was. This was around 1984. I remember stopping my chemistry teacher in the hallways and asking him, what is fire if matter can be in one of three states. I was met with a very puzzled face and was told that he'd never been asked that in all his years of teaching and would have to get back to me. He did with one very simple answer which I'll never forget...
It's a visual release of energy.
Loved your video, for some reason this ended up in my feed and if I was still into chemistry I would have subscribed instantly as you've explained everything so well so thank-you for that.
I don't like it. It doesn't address the "states of matter" basis of the question.
@@billshiff2060because technically speaking fire doesn’t really have a state of matter. Fire is less of a physical thing and more of a process that we can watch happen.
Take a candle for example: the wax of the candle is burned at the wick in the presence of air in order to produce light and heat. You could point to the solid wick, the liquid melted wax, the oxygen gas in the air, etc, and point out their state of matter in the process of burning, but fire is the process itself. Fire does not have a state of matter because it is simply the visual component of the chemical release of energy in a fuel during an oxidative process.
@@greenspace3279 Therefore "fire" cannot exist unless it gives off light? No, unacceptable answer, it does not address the basis of the question, STATE.
I'd say technically speaking what we CALL "fire" doesn’t really have a state of matter because it is not a single thing. It is a complex series of reactions between many components which are in shifting states of matter during that process.
The question of states is overly broad, like asking "what color is paint" or "which city do people live in".
"It's a visual release of energy." is a partial description of what we call fire but does nothing to answer the question of state. The question needs to zoom in a lot more to get any answer.
Fire is a gas
Those questions can be answered easily and simply.
“What color is paint”
-it is one, or a combination of colors of the observers light spectrum
“What city do people live in?
-One or more of the cities located around the globe, depending on the residence/residences of the individual or individuals referenced
You're an amazing explainer. I found your channel a few days ago.
I have a good tip for self learners. You're never to old to learn something. I am a computer scientist and I didn't really had the opportunity to dive deep into the field of chemistry. Channels like these will teach you a lot. The amazing thing is that you are able to learn practically everything if you devide the task into many smaller easy to handle tasks. This is the essence of what I call the algorithmic thinking of a computer scientist. If you make small enough planned steps, you will be able to climb the hill without exhaustion. Back in my younger days I had issues learning stuff because I wanted to have the whole cake. The hard truth I didn't want to be true was that in order to learn something you have to start with the basics. That means also that you sometimes have to go back to stuff like math or physics or basically any field that is relevant for your goal. This is the hard part, because it takes a lot of will to overcome this phase. But ONCE you crossed that line you will find yourself equipped with a beatiful and often powerful perspective of this world. You will have new skills you've never dreamed of and understand things more clear.
I wish you good luck on your journey. You have it in you!
At 1.25X playback speed, you sound normal
On God
*1.5x
Nailed it. Made it perfect!
It helps me, but I think he’s mostly slowing it down for people new to chemistry.
He's on that sizzurp low key
This is absolutely fascinating. Thanks for literally shedding light on topic I wondered about since I was a kid such as why the campfire is yellow while the gas stove flame is blue. I later learned about incandescence and now the puzzle pieces fit together. Thanks!
10:30 I find it so charming and on brand that you credited another presenter with where you learned a presentation trick.
No one would ever accuse you of TH-cam plagiarism for copying a trick like this, but it’s still just the nice thing to do, and you did it. Ya love to see it.
This is a brilliant video, possibly your best so far and the one that was recommended to me when I first discovered the channel. I fully expect this channel to gain the popularity it deserves
Yes this is truly a great video... But unless You have already seen it I can not highly enough recommend the "engineerguy's" video series based on "Faraday's Christmas lecture" about "The Chemical History of a Candle"
th-cam.com/video/6W0MHZ4jb4A/w-d-xo.html
It like all "engineerguy-videos" is quite extraordinary.
Best regards
Wicked good. I am hooked. Slake a thirst for science-carry on.
This channel is a true gem, awesome content
This showed up in my recommended videos and I’m glad I watched it! Very detailed :D
Thanks! Please share so others can find it.
I stumbled into Chemistry and loved it, ending up as an Organic major. I have always wanted to know what fire is, yet here you are answering in a deliciously chemistry way that was so fascinating. Thank you for that little journey into chemistry and it’s intriguing beauty.
And thank you for the phrase 'deliciously chemistry'.
My grandson and I work in the HVAC industry so we do a lot of braising. I'm going to show him this video. It's really cool to know exactly what the flame is that we are using with our torches. Thank you
Excellent! Beautiful explanation. And your signoff was one of the best lines I've ever heard to connect the metaphysical with the physical.
That last sentence was everything, loved it. Thank you for sharing #subscribed
Thanks Alejandra!
Before watching my answer is simple…the flames we see when a log burns are just the flames from the sun that changed form, came to earth, got trapped inside the seed of the tree from which the log came, then finally got released again.
I actually wondered about what is fire a few weeks ago but never imagined the amazing details that you reveal here. Thank you!!!
Combustion potentiality + oxygen? Apparently oxygen always wants to give up one or more of the 8 electrons it has. And some combustion processes fit with it like a puzzle piece.
A more interesting question perhaps, is what is combustion? And when/why does it occur?
Idk. I failed physics a long time ago. And physics is now a prereq for chemistry. Specifically, quantum mechanics.
@@py_a_thon A self-sustaining exothermic chemical reaction between anoxidant and a chemical able to be reduced a lot of the energy is generally given off as infrared electromagnetic waves and converts to a lower state of energy normally some sort of carbon compound -kicked off when the energy state reaches a point that Combustion is the process that will liberate the added energy - activation energy, Ain’t no chemist but that’s the way it was explained to me LOL
I don't often comment on videos, but found this to be amazingly well done and educational. Thanks also for the very thought-provoking ending.
Incredibly clear explanation! And all the parts follow each other very smoothly; very good indeed.
just awesome 💯 especially the END (ourselves as a fire)
I alway knew that the wood itself was not burning in a campfire because you could see the flame just above the wood. Now I understand the chemistry, thank you very much for explaining this. I also love your philosophical explanation of life, good job!
Burning wood is an interesting one you have to heat the wood enough to get the vapours to depart and is this video showed the different compounds and elements of what causes a colour so you have a transition zone with us no flame above the wood the yellow carbon rich flame and finally the blue hydrogen flame at the top of the flame .the other thing you can do is log fire up get it burning hot and if you have a woodstove turn the damper right closed and you’ll see the flames will diminish and turn into smoke which is just partly burnt combustion products then you quickly open the damper and you’ll see the smoke vanish to be a small bang which is expanding gases and the firebox will be filled with flame!
Well done, amazing clarity and simple explanation.... you answered my query of 20 years about what fire is .
The ending is just mind-blowing. Thank you sir for such a great explanation, also the animation conveyed the sense just brilliantly.
Thanks!
I am very impressed with this video. You did a wonderful job of explaining the subject matter and the ending was amazing. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you!
It seems that a core concept you kind of brushed across was that no matter the material that is burning, it's a combination of *gasses* that are burning. It's kind of counter-intuitive for wood, etc, but a very illuminating (yuk, yuk) concept!
I know you get lots of compliments about this video. But you have a very wonderful way of explaining things, and you made this video very interesting and very educational. Thank you.
You're explanation of the chemical nature of fire was very informative and interesting. Thank you. But the last bit about the human body, and in relation, existence itself, blew my effing mind.
I was so interested I actually forgot to press the LIKE button so thank you for the reminder. Don’t think I’ve ever appreciated the reminder
Wow, I was not prepared for that amazing ending
Excellent. Thank you.
Mors Kochanski, a Titan of the bushcraft and wilderness living skills instructor lead me here. He was the only instructor I ever heard describe simply and in quite detail the gasification of wood at high temperatures to give off its heating properties. He explained the process and chemistry of combustion. This video is very interesting
This video is incredibly informative
Stumped my science teacher with this one in high school. He eventually regained his composure and mumbled ‘a reaction’ so fair play KP 👏
Great video, very well explained. Also liked the ending. You could have added that for those reasons a flame can be considered alive also it can replicate itself.
Thanks for your comment. But if you watch again, I say that we are a reaction zone, but I don't say that a flame is alive. Although flames have many features of living systems, they are missing one or two crucial aspects. The line between 'dead' and 'living' systems is my main focus.
Yes and thats a great analogy. I was taught metabolism is key to consider something alive, but virusses still seem to cause debate.
this is the best explanation I have heard. thank you
Great channel - found it, searching about what is fire. I plan to make it through your other videos on chemistry. I'm a EE who enjoys chemisty, and your explanations are very clear. Subscribed. Cheers
Thanks!
A pragmatic chemist?
Don't skimp on the O rings of your space shuttles if you prefer to not see gigantic explosions and loss of life.
Material sciences?
Thank you for the soot explanation.
Lovely video...
Really well explained, I already knew the core of it, but you explained it so detailed and well, I learned alot. thank you :)
I always love to watch contained fires, the flames are calming and hypnotising.
It was always almost annoying to me, that I couln't hold a flame in my hands.
Which led me to investigate what fire actually is.
I understood that it is basicly chemical reactions, now I underdtand it very detailed. Thank you again.
And thank you for your lovely comment.
BRO!! Legit, I asked this question to my chemistry teacher in High School, her and my entire class looked at me like i asked what 1 + 1 is. Thank you for making me feel like it was a legitimate question and not me being stupid.
Absolutely brilliant video!
Thank you so much for this education! I've wondered about that for decades. I still am curious about the quantum physics that goes into the creation of these photons from fire flames though.
I dutifully explained this to my 4 year old as I lit her birthday cake candles. She wasn’t very impressed. Maybe next year.
Keep trying, she'll thank you eventually!
Good explanations. Water does not burn but also cools other compounds down due to its high heat of vaporization. This is one way firefighters use water to prevent fires from spreading. Before many solids can combust the molecules as you said must reach the temperature needed to decompose and vaporize.
What are you a fire fighter? 😂
I liked the philosophical bit at the end of the video. It truly is marvelous, how long this bio-chemical reaction we call "ourselves" run on for, how many molecules we break and create, just by eating, drinking, and breathing. Life is the engine of change, and one hell of a way for entropy to bring about equilibrium. also, I couldn't get a straight answer from Google, but is it the blackbody radiation that makes the yellow glow of the flame?
Yes, I'm pretty sure it is blackbody radiation, as opposed to a single transition (as in sodium).
You're a gem on TH-cam.
Thank you, that's very kind.
Ear bones probably never get replaced, but hey, what an interesting talk. Thanks. Answered many questions but also raised quite a few too.
That last part was pure romantic.
A connection I would like to see is particle size and black body radiation. It is my understanding that a normal wood fire is brighter in the visible then you would expect by just having knowledge of its temperature because the particle sizes are too small to radiate in the longer wavelengths. Do you know if this is the case?
Lvl 1 on expert mode 🔥
This video was so incredible all the way through, I truly really liked it.
And at the end, a random Dark Souls existential crisis.
Thanks for this video
Very good explanation 👏
great content !!
Thanks!
Wow, what an ending!!!
Ur the only sir that understand ur English like my mother tongue......great sir...
Love that closer.
Excellent 👌👌👌
Excellent video Sir. Thank you
Does that mean that a blue flame is a more efficient combustion, since less soot makes it out unburned? Does a blue flame radiate heat in infrared, like a red one?
love the ending
I accidently in middle school and high school discovered chemistry - physics, and theatre 101 so to speak have all the information in three simple courses needed to understand everything on this planetary spacecraft - including a great understanding of socializxation...Adding ac/dc/communication electronics gave me wave examples I could see that translate to all other interactions of molecules and atoms... I get goosebumps remembering my see the connections almost overnight one day... at about 20 years old...
I had a full blown mental orgasmitron, telling my wife and four year old - and the wife is like...ok cool...are you alright,? did you have a drink?
maybe you should have a drink...hahahah.
great channel!
Thanks! Please share and let other people know it's out there.
Great study thanks
Great video and awesome explanation of how and what a fire is. However, I think you may need to explain where, how, and why the blue colours are blue and yellow colurs come out yellow.Also, why adding potassium salts to fire create a purple colour or copper salts would produce a blue green flame. Time for another video?
I think that question could be answered by researching how neon lights work? I forget the specifics, yet some gasses when excited by energy or a novel process, will express in a form that is perceived to be a specific color.
That should also apply to powders and liquids, in some ways.
This was a great video. You explained everything in a simple manner so that anyone could understand what is happening. The one thing you did not talk about with liquids is flash point. At the very end I liked the way you explained how we are really a very slow burning flame, we even exhale Carbon Dioxide and Water vapor.
Dried up Christmas Trees are great fire starters. LOL
dry Christmas trees are shockingly ferocious burners. long ago, I burned a Christmas tree in late January in the backyard, and after I started it, which was very easy, I instantly regretted it, the flames rose at least 30 feet into the air
@@Mike1614b Just imagine that ree in your house with the old C-7 Christmas lights which got very hot. It's a disaster just waiting to happen.
great explanation thank u! right up there with Feynman-
I’m completely surprised how many people watched this video and number of likes. I have a degree in field of combustion and explosives and I spent 9 years of my career to develop new products for explosions and combustion, make measurements in zone of chemical reactions, develop SW to simulate physical processes powered by chemical reactions. I didn’t see much interest from people to this field of technologies to switch to EE/SW business. Subscribed to see people interest to area inspired me early.
Your work certainly sounds interesting to me! But I think combustion and explosives are usually quite dry and physical chemistry based and that, no doubt, turns a lot of people off.
@@ThreeTwentysix Explosives are mainly are part of organic chemestry. I remember lab work on organic chemistry class as a 4 years student. Labs to synthes TNT, hexogen, octogen and etc. Work takes 4 hours to synthesis explosive and to rectify one. Professor will take your explosive into a special office to verify she would be able to ignite an expocion from material your just synthesized. If your work wouldn't be able to exploud, your score for the lab is F. If it is explouded - score is A, if it wasn't explouded but burned, depends on flame characteristics score would be B or C. IMHO, it was a selling point for young students! Or a course work at 10th semester for class Explosions in real media was to estimate how much Hiroshima bomb distroution was caused by flames vs shock waves. I have visited many national disasters like gas pipline explosions; explosions in coal mines; flames on ocean tankers and etc. I have no idea about people, but my conclusion, people don't have much interest to such phenomena. Your video shows opposite! People have some interest!
Now it makes sense.... thank you
I love you sir....your all explanation is amazing 💕 from india
master class ! thanks a lot !
Thanks for your comment, I really appreciate it!
You sir are a natural born educator - I was looking for a discussion of the role of pyrolysis in the combustion reaction, which you touched on when you discussed charcoal, but didn't mention explicitly. I would like to hear more about both pyrolysis and the incandescence that takes place in the flame and the origin of that incandescence.
Simple, a gas (in most cases we refer go the word fire anyway) that is so hot that it glows a specific wavelength of light in accordance with the temperature and material burning, and releases enough heat through destruction of chemical bonds to further destroy chemical bonds, keeping up a self sustaining reaction.
Well done..thanks
This is the best, most comprehensive explanation of combustion I have found. Thankyou. I do find it hard to believe though that we do not possess any atoms from birth. Surely some the Ca2+ in our bones is locked away for this long?
Great video, but I've got an nitpick: at 18:12 the video says that the diffusion pushes the yellow blobs upwards and cause them to separate off. Actually, it is the pressure gradient in the air that is causing a fluid upthrust and thereby free convection.
The blob calls to mind the fireball from a nuclear explosion, doesn't it? I wonder whether there is any tendency to form a twisting torus as it rises, like with a nuclear fireball?
Also, I think I can put the reason for the flame being yellow rather simply: it is rich in yellow-hot soot. By the way, that explains why a candle flame, even if it seems not to be giving off soot, can still be used so effectively to write on a white ceiling, if you touch the flame to the ceiling [Legal warning: Do not try at home (please)].
Cool video. It's another day, can I learn how the air can burn if it's hot enough?
That is just beautiful descriptive science,
Thank you!
Very good explanation' lined and subbed. Thank you
I like Your self centering fire pit arrangement : ) fire is also one of those things We daren't let any other species control We wont be around long if that were to happen it is that powerfull, like wheat it got Us were We are today! it is good and bad! Cheers!!!
got really deep at the end
Babe, wake up, we're linking the flame and starting another age of fire
Are the forces of attraction between the radicals that contribute to the formation of new bonds electrical or electromagnetic forces?
This video was fire! 🔥 straight gas! ⛽😮💨🔌
What about monopropellant chemistry? Both oxidizer and reductant chemicals like nitromethane and hydrogen peroxide.
Köszönöm!
Excellent video
I make charcoal (for biochar, for my compost) in my woodstove, in a retort. Could you do a video on pyrolysis please? (I will now go and check your channel!)
About wood fuel combustion - when there is no flame but embers are smoldering, a wood log will continue to smolder and turn to ash over hours. How does an ember that has no flame fit into this picture?
The combustion of solids is very complicated at that level but essentially, you're left with a complex matrix of carbon structures that break up and react with oxygen without forming the smoke that gives the yellow colour.
in video games it's an element; in real life it's a chemical reaction.
Blame Aristotle.
Question. Would flame be considered a plasma? Seeing as it's just a mess of random pieces? In pretty high heat energy state?
What about the plasma state is the blue a ionized plasma, ? Or just gas all the time?
No, it's not a plasma. You'd have to strip out all the inner electrons too to get a plasma and that's much hotter.
Fascinating
Seems to me that it's basically a fast form of oxidation rust basically
Thank you love your show very good.
"And why does it - what's the word - buuurrrrrn?"
Fanning the fire of knowledge...😊