How do things “burn”?
In: 12
burning in a conventional sense of something like gasoline or a wood log or paper, or, more unfortunate living creatures sometimes, is a type of chemical reaction known as oxidation.
Oxygen is a fairly reactive element, even in the gas form around you that you breathe in. At high enough temperatures and when given something that can kickstart a reaction(like a spark of electricity), the oxygen in the air can break apart the bonds of a fuel source like the aforementioned, which have a lot of carbon and hydrogen atoms in their molecules, and recombine those atoms into carbon dioxide, water, and a lot of heat which keeps the reaction going. Smoke from fire is the result of some of that fuel source not being able to burn properly, either because not enough oxygen got to it so bits remain, or because the fuel has other elements in it besides just hydrogen and carbon that don’t burn.
Latest Answers