Thermal Imaging Cameras and Flame colour

A look into why flame are they colours that they are. And just as importantly we take a look at infrared radiation and how firefighters can use it to search in fires.

[@jespertoft-thomsen5123]

Hi Matt
Thanks for some cool videos.
I live in Denmark and work as a Global Fire Safety Manager, I am also a firefighter in my hometown. Alongside work, I am studying a Master's in fire safety. As you I would like to spread knowledge about fire. I have a few questions and would like to know if we could exchange emails or similar

[@MattDavis5]

Hi Jasper.
I'm glad you like them. I'm always happy to have a chat 🙂. My email is [e-mail]

[@nakamura7346]

A question about Herschel’ experiment. As we know light contains more energy as the lightwave declines. But why the thermometer in the range of infrared zone recorded the highest temperature? 1:45

[@MattDavis5]

Yeah that had me scratching my head when I made this video too. I looked into in at the time and I think I found the answer. But this isn’t an area I’m really good with, so take it with a grain of salt. But from memory the reason why the blue light has less energy is because of the solar radiation spectrum and how the light travels through our atmosphere. In simple terms our sun emits energy across a spectrum and then some of it is absorbed in our atmosphere. This leaves more energy in the red and infrared part of the spectrum than the blue once the light reaches sea level, and the energy difference is a result of there being more red light available than blue light rather than their actual energies. I was going to include a whole section on this in the video. But it’s really not an area that I’m confident in speaking about. Hope that helps.

[@hungerjo9119]

Could you please explain why blue flames have a higher temperature than red flames, but in a prism experiment, blue light has less energy?

[@MattDavis5]

Hi there. I’ll need to double check my facts here.. but from memory the reason why the blue light has less energy is because of the solar radiation spectrum and how the light travels through our atmosphere. In simple terms our sun emits energy across a spectrum and then some of it is absorbed in our atmosphere. This leaves more energy in the red part of the visible light spectrum than the blue once the light reaches sea level, and the energy difference is a result of there being more red light available than blue light rather than their actual energies. I was going to include a whole section on this in the video. But it’s really not an area that I’m confident in speaking about and it was also a pretty massive Segway haha. Hope that helps. If all else fails search for the solar radiation spectrum and you’ll start finding references 🙂

[@user-ud2vr9jx1j]

Your video is awesome，Can I translate your video into Chinese?

[@MattDavis5]

I think you can turn subtitles on these days if that helps 😀