How can fire spread? Isn’t it just a chemical reaction? What about other reactions? Is there a reason they don’t spread?
In: 7
Absolutely other reactions can and do spread. The major risk of fire is that the reactants (the chemicals that participate in the reaction) are *right there* out in the open and mixed together.
We live in a world where practically everything (except concrete) is made out of many flavors of hydrocarbons, or molecules that contain carbon bonded to hydrogen.
We also live in a world where oxygen gas is just floating around everywhere. The hydrocarbons have electrons they want to give up and oxygen is looking for electrons to take. And they are right there, next to each other, like two shy single people with so much in common but just need to make the first move.
So the world is a beaker and the 2 chemicals have been mixed in there together. That is why it can grow so large.
Thankfully there is a barrier to the reaction happening called “activation energy”. This is what stops the reaction from happening (and why you, your house, your lawn, and all of your plastics aren’t bursting into flame right now). Now on the flipside, the reaction makes a lot of energy which is more than enough to overcome this activation energy. Thats why it spreads.
Latest Answers