– How exactly does water put out a fire? Is it a smothering thing, or a chemical reaction?

Question

– How exactly does water put out a fire? Is it a smothering thing, or a chemical reaction?

In: Chemistry

Answer 1

Its a thermodynamic reaction. Basically fire needs enough energy to propagate. When it burns the splitting of molecules creates enough energy for other particles to burn as well.

Water takes a lot of energy to change temperature. So when you put water on fire it basically absorbs a ton of energy that would otherwise go to making more fire. And because it takes so much more energy it lowers the overall temperature. Once the temperature is low enough the fire doesn’t have enough energy to spread anymore.