Learning what fire actually is, like what the flames are literally made of, blew my freaking mind years ago.
Fire is literally just gas (and fine solid particulates suspended therein) that contains so much thermal energy that its black body radiosity has reached into the visual spectrum.
There are some types of flames that are NOT bright enough to be visible under ambient lighting conditions and can only be seen in environments that are very dark!
Pure ethanol, for instance, combusts dark enough that you can’t see the flames in daylight conditions, or even under strong artificial lighting.
Methanol fires in racing are scary. No flame, no smoke, just burning you.
I had an RC car as a kid with a small combustion engine that used methanol. When I and my friend realised that methanol burns without a flame we got so excited. It brought a new dimension to our army men shenanigans. That and discovering home made napalm.
Oh man, the homemade napalm comment really hits home for me. How did you use to make it? My friend always said that it was by melting polystyrene foam in petrol (no heat needed, it simply melts on contact).
Yeah we used styrofoam and melted it into this weird goo that sticks everywhere. Was dope.
I saw that in a documentary recently. Absolutely terrifying.
New fear aquired
that its black body radiosity has reached into the visual spectrum
Ehm wut.
It gets so hot that it glows. Like how a filament in an incandescent light bulb glows when enough electricity is put through it.
Thanks for ELI5
Hot, like how Keke Palmer expresses thermal energy.
For the love of all that is holy stop cropping out the artist’s watermarks
it is literally more effort to crop out the watermark
I don’t understand why some people do it, it’s just such an insanely shitty thing to do that doesn’t seem like it’d have any benefit whatsoever (not saying it was the OP, these tend to float around the internet.)
Me up until 3am, thinking I should go to bed
1:30h documentary on roman concrete later, I’m still thinking I should go to bed
Wikipedia rabbit holes at 3 am 🔥
- Me with the Technology Connections and Legal Eagle YouTube channels lately.
Why did I just spend an hour learning how they recorded audio on VHS?
Ha, I too had important research to do last night
We’re not talking about that kind of research ( ͝° ͜ʖ͡°)
To be fair, it is important to know what is fire.
*fire is the rapid oxidization of fuel resulting in heat and light.
We only research the important things at night
Eli5. What is fire?
Financial Independence Retire Early
Fire is a sustained chemical reaction where carbon-based molecules are broken up and combine with oxygen, releasing carbon dioxide, sometimes methane, and heat (and thus light), which primes the remaining carbon-based molecules for continued chemical reactions with oxygen.
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A few minutes past 3, so he did indeed stay up long.
Here’s something I find interesting.
Firstly, the definition from Wikipedia: Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products.
For all you bad cooks out there, the reason you can’t burn water when you’re cooking is because water is already fully oxidized. Water is also often one of those reaction products the definition talks about.
I other words, you can’t burn water because it’s already burnt.
Also, in order to have fire you need heat, and water is wonderful at absolving and dissipating heat.
As a physicist, I find I get less confident in my ability to answer questions like this each day.
