Can Fire have force, and if not then why is it portrayed that way in media?

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In many of the shows, books, games I experience, whenever fire is shown as a weapon by itself, it always seems to have physical force. It will knock the enemy back or will slam them into the ground in shows or games like Avatar and Dark Souls. Can it could actually have force enough to push someone back? If not why is it portrayed that way all the time?

I could never actually imagine fire doing having enough power to slam someone back. I always think it would just go onto you or gloss over/around you and light you on fire.

In: Physics

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Fire is i the first wikipedia sentence:

>Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products

So it is the reaction that combines stuff and produces heat. The flames it not necessary where the combustion happens it might just be hot gasses that is released but combustion can happen there.

If you heat a gas they expand, if you burn solids especially if the oxygen i in a solid to like in gunpowder you create a lot of gas.

So fire in itself is not a force it is a reaction but it will produce gasses that move away. rapid combustion in an enclosed space results in extreme pressure and is exactly how black powder firearms work.

If you take an old cannon and put in gun powder and ignite it will burn. The pressure wi not get as high as if a cannonball is in the barrel but if you were in front the release could rip your body apart.

a rocket is a combustion in a chamber where one side is open and it results in a continuous release of hot gas at high speed. So if that hit you it would be a force on you as well as a force on the rocket, that force is why a rocket fly.
Ideally, there is no combustion in the flame and all have occurred in the combustion chamber so what you see in a rocket exhaust it very hot gas not something that burn

A flame thrower release most of the time a liquid that burn in the atmosphere. So in a way a water gun that shoots out a liquid that can burn. They do not produce a lot of force because the combustion is slow. You would like for non burned liquid to hit the target and burn on them especially if its a bunker.
Sometime in WWII flame tank fired the flame thrower without igniting the liquid because the enemy surrenders quickly when they get the liquid on them and knew that the next shoot will be burning and they will get set alight. You might be afraid of bullies but you are terrified but fire. Often a flam tank fire a flame up in the air at a distance is enough to get the enemy to capitulate if they do not have good anti-tank weapons.
So a flame thrower is more like water gun/ water hose so there can be a force.

So if the in the series/game you can shoot fire out of you hand it can work as a rock with combustion in you hand so what you shoot is a cone of hot gas moving at very high speed and that will knock someone down.

If it is more like a flamethrower there is pressure from the liquid you fire out but it will move at a lot lower speed.

So fire is not a force but the result of the combustion can be moving gas that transfers a force. It can also be that the stuff that but is a liquid that is ejected at high speed so you have a force but it would be there if there was no ignition.

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