What’s in a flame? The chemistry and physics of fire are surprisingly complicated for something so ubiquitous, but there’s a pretty easy answer for “what’s in a flame?” Ions. When a candle flame is placed between two contacts holding a about ten thousand volts, the flame is pulled to the positive and negative side like a flickering butterfly. The air, usually a good insulator, allows the ions within the flame to jump to either side, allowing an arc to form.  Check out the full video from Veritasium. Spark more interest with this winning video from The Flame Challenge, explaining what fire is in simple terms. (This GIF isn’t animating on the Tumblr dashboard for some people. Click through to see the glory)
Pop-upView Separately

What’s in a flame?

The chemistry and physics of fire are surprisingly complicated for something so ubiquitous, but there’s a pretty easy answer for “what’s in a flame?”

Ions.

When a candle flame is placed between two contacts holding a about ten thousand volts, the flame is pulled to the positive and negative side like a flickering butterfly. The air, usually a good insulator, allows the ions within the flame to jump to either side, allowing an arc to form. 

Check out the full video from Veritasium. Spark more interest with this winning video from The Flame Challenge, explaining what fire is in simple terms.

(This GIF isn’t animating on the Tumblr dashboard for some people. Click through to see the glory)

Melting Steel With Bacon!

Thanks to the elaborate hydrocarbon chains in pork fat, there’s enough chemical energy stored in bacon to melt steel. You just have to find some way to get at all that energy.

Theo Gray uses prosciutto to construct a “thermal lance” in the video above. Normally, this is a tool that uses intensely-burning iron rods to cut through other metals.

By using pure oxygen to power the combustion reaction, nearly all of the chemical energy in the bacon’s bonds is converted to heat. He’s literally running the oxygen through the meat like a flaming hose of delicious thermal destruction. It goes to show you how much chemical energy is wasted in normal combustion (also known as “burned bacon”).

Non-meat-eaters, rejoice. He also tests out a vegan version made from a cucumber and breadsticks. As for me, I think it’s the second-best use of bacon I’ve ever seen, next to eating it.

So cool.

It turns out that exploding bubbles of hydrogen filmed at 16,000 frames per second are one of the coolest things on Earth. 

This is part of a study of the fluid dynamics of various explosive mixtures of hydrogen and air. The video talks a lot about the idea of “buoyancy”, which for flames and explosions relates to their ability to push out and displace the air around them, use up all the available fuel, etc.

Of course, if you’re not into the science side of it, just skip ahead in the video to about 1:20 and then pick your jaw up off the floor.

io9updates:

Feel Like Watching a Leaf Cause an Explosion?

By Esther Inglis-Arkell

Manganese heptoxide is a compound with seven oxygen molecules.  It’s always ready to lend a few out, which is why it’s called an oxidizer.  Oxidization is another word for burning.  It oxidizes so spontaneously that nearly any contact with an organic molecule will set it off.  You can see it explode with a leaf and paper, as well as drops of butane.

It’s Friday, and every Friday deserves a little explosion or two … Fireday!

I like that this video is called “Lighting Stuff On Fire With Mn2O7”.

All fire is basically oxidation, which is a fancy chemistry word that sort of complicates the process. Fire wants oxygen, but the question in various forms of combustion is what is providing the oxygen? In a campfire, it’s coming from the air. When we strike a match, as we saw in this super-awesome video a couple months ago, the oxygen comes from potassium chlorate.

In this video, the oxygen comes from a very angry and unstable molecule, and the results are amazing.

What about when someone strikes a lighter “flint” or a firesteel? Firesteels are made of a combination of cerium (Ce) and iron (Fe), which (in their pure forms) like to burn when exposed to oxygen. Iron is usually not thought of as explosive because it has a pretty high combustion temperature. The cerium helps get that reaction going, since it ignites at a lower temperature.

So check out the whoa-inducing slow-motion GIF of sparking firesteel below, when the handheld scraper exposes tiny flecks of the “ferrocerium”. It’s sparks galore!!

image

Slow Burn

Isn’t watching a match burn in slow motion a hypnotic sight? Want to know what you’re looking at?

For something as ubiquitous as matches, it strikes me that very few people know what goes into creating fire on the end of a stick. Let’s open the book and illuminate the science behind this burning question.

I’ll stop the puns now.

Having a source of fire on demand was not always such a trivial pursuit that we were willing to give things like matches away for free at the Olive Garden hostess stand. As far back as the 6th century A.D. the Chinese were using sulfur-coated sticks to spread fire from camp to camp, because without fire, you died or ate raw food.

Most of what’s in a match today is a chemical called potassium chlorate, which is really just a good source of the oxygen atoms that every flame needs in order to burn. There’s also a good bit of sulfur, which is what’s doing most of the burning and what gives matches their characteristic smell (and why some people keep them in the bathroom), glue, and inert stuff. The “strike” part of the match was added later, when inventors in the 1800’s added a chemical called “white phosphorous”.

White phosphorous is a common explosive that burns super-vigorously when it comes in contact with oxygen under the right conditions, like when a little heat is added. Unfortunately it works a little too well, and it’s also enormously toxic. It was eventually replaced with a less volatile, less toxic form called “red phosphorous” after factory workers began dying left and right.

So what happens when you strike a match?

If you try striking a common match on regular sandpaper, nothing will happen except that you end up with a handfull of toothpicks. The special red sandpaper has a tiny bit of red phosphorous embedded in it, and when you drag the match across it creates heat. If you make enough heat, a wee bit of red phosphorous gets turned into white phosphorous and starts microscopic explosions. Remember the sulfur in the match head? At regular atmospheric oxygen concentrations the sulfur isn’t very flammable. But add some pure oxygen and heat and sulfur goes ballistic. The tiny sparks from the red-to-white phosphorous release oxygen from the potassium chlorate so that the sulfur is able to burn in a high oxygen environment. 

Eventually, the wood catches, and you try to say the alphabet or something before it burns out.

So it’s more than just a cool slow-motion video, it’s a close-up on chemistry!

Fun With Feynman: Fire

You can’t help but smile when you watch this wonderful man get excited about the “catastrophe” of fire, to see his hands slamming carbon and oxygen atoms together like a little kid! I mean, just behold the amazingness of science!

You just let him remind you that trees grow out of the air, and not the ground, and tell me you aren’t beaming from ear to ear!!

Source: youtube.com

A Burning Question? First … sorry. You’ve probably already turned this paper in, because it takes me so long to get through all the questions you guys send in, but in case anyone else is writing a research paper on the “Biological Manifestations of Burns and Possibilites for Evolution of Hominid Daenarysian Flame-Resistance,” here ya go: Bodies are made of cells. Cells are made primarily of proteins, fats (called lipids), nucleic acids (like DNA) and most of all, water. Burns are really just an injury to these cells caused by exposure to high temperatures. The severity depends on how many and which kind of cell gets burned. The burning that happens when we touch a hot iron must be differentiated from the burning that happens inside, say, a campfire. In a campfire we are witnessing combustion. This is the conversion of one type of chemical - long chains of carbons that make up wood, for instance - into simpler carbon chains, like ash. Oxygen feeds the reaction and water vapor is released. Processes like cremation burn a body this way, but it takes very high temperatures (and usually some external propellant) to recreate something like the famous self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc, or when Sarah Conner was toasted by a thermonuclear weapon. We are all aware that the severity of burns ranks into three categories, but you might not know that the more severe burns, while most dangerous, hurt the least. Why is that? Let’s analyze what happens to your cells when you get burned. Depending on the temperature and length of exposure, your cells will absorb a certain amount of heat. The more heat, the deeper the burn and more severe. Let’s pretend we had a thin sheet of cells on a stove and started cranking up the temperature. First the cell membranes, made of lipids and other molecules, would start to lose their shape. Just like olive oil is liquid at room temperature and solidifies in the fridge, so do the fats in your cell membranes respond to extreme temperatures. Next, the long, carefully wound chains of amino acids that make up your proteins would begin to unravel, just like a wrinkle relaxes when you iron a shirt. Instantly, all the machinery of your cells would be unwound and useless, never able to fold up into its active shape. If you’re keeping score, that means you have loose membranes filled with broken proteins. That cell is D-E-D dead. If the temperature gets high enough, the water in the cells will actually boil away! Depending on how hot and long the exposure, you’re left with some region of your tissue that is effectively burnt toast. Of course, it doesn’t end there. Your body recognizes the injury and starts to release a whole mess of emergency signaling molecules around the burned tissue. One of these is called histamine, and it actually causes gaps to form between cells, allowing fluid to leak out. This is why liquid-filled blisters (that you, of course, never pop) form, and also, along with some other causes, why you get the sniffles. Along with the tissue itself, your blood vessels can also get damaged, and unless they grow back (which they don’t always do), you could be left with a pretty bad situation. This is why we give grafts of living skin tissue, so that we can patch a dead region with something that’s still alive. Beyond that, your body’s response to severe burns can be as severe as kidney failure, shock, and loss of immune protection. Basically, in order for humans to progress into fireproof beings, we have two choices: Evolve thermostable proteins that can withstand high temperatures (like hot springs bacteria) along with Teflon-impregnated skin, or stop being made primarily of water. Both are unlikely, although could spawn a good sci-fi story or two. 
Pop-upView Separately

A Burning Question?

First … sorry. You’ve probably already turned this paper in, because it takes me so long to get through all the questions you guys send in, but in case anyone else is writing a research paper on the “Biological Manifestations of Burns and Possibilites for Evolution of Hominid Daenarysian Flame-Resistance,” here ya go:

Bodies are made of cells. Cells are made primarily of proteins, fats (called lipids), nucleic acids (like DNA) and most of all, water. Burns are really just an injury to these cells caused by exposure to high temperatures. The severity depends on how many and which kind of cell gets burned.

The burning that happens when we touch a hot iron must be differentiated from the burning that happens inside, say, a campfire. In a campfire we are witnessing combustion. This is the conversion of one type of chemical - long chains of carbons that make up wood, for instance - into simpler carbon chains, like ash. Oxygen feeds the reaction and water vapor is released. Processes like cremation burn a body this way, but it takes very high temperatures (and usually some external propellant) to recreate something like the famous self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc, or when Sarah Conner was toasted by a thermonuclear weapon.

We are all aware that the severity of burns ranks into three categories, but you might not know that the more severe burns, while most dangerous, hurt the least. Why is that? Let’s analyze what happens to your cells when you get burned.

Depending on the temperature and length of exposure, your cells will absorb a certain amount of heat. The more heat, the deeper the burn and more severe. Let’s pretend we had a thin sheet of cells on a stove and started cranking up the temperature.

First the cell membranes, made of lipids and other molecules, would start to lose their shape. Just like olive oil is liquid at room temperature and solidifies in the fridge, so do the fats in your cell membranes respond to extreme temperatures.

Next, the long, carefully wound chains of amino acids that make up your proteins would begin to unravel, just like a wrinkle relaxes when you iron a shirt. Instantly, all the machinery of your cells would be unwound and useless, never able to fold up into its active shape. If you’re keeping score, that means you have loose membranes filled with broken proteins. That cell is D-E-D dead.

If the temperature gets high enough, the water in the cells will actually boil away! Depending on how hot and long the exposure, you’re left with some region of your tissue that is effectively burnt toast. Of course, it doesn’t end there. Your body recognizes the injury and starts to release a whole mess of emergency signaling molecules around the burned tissue. One of these is called histamine, and it actually causes gaps to form between cells, allowing fluid to leak out. This is why liquid-filled blisters (that you, of course, never pop) form, and also, along with some other causes, why you get the sniffles.

Along with the tissue itself, your blood vessels can also get damaged, and unless they grow back (which they don’t always do), you could be left with a pretty bad situation. This is why we give grafts of living skin tissue, so that we can patch a dead region with something that’s still alive. Beyond that, your body’s response to severe burns can be as severe as kidney failure, shock, and loss of immune protection.

Basically, in order for humans to progress into fireproof beings, we have two choices: Evolve thermostable proteins that can withstand high temperatures (like hot springs bacteria) along with Teflon-impregnated skin, or stop being made primarily of water. Both are unlikely, although could spawn a good sci-fi story or two.