If you pulled out the smoke from a fire, would it burn hotter?
In: Physics
Basic background: more air = hotter fire. Oxygen is a necessary ingredient for a conventional fire to burn.
Answers: Exactly as you asked, yes. To “pull out smoke”, you’ll suck out the air in which the smoke is suspended. Doing this causes more fresh air whooshing in to replace the resulting vacuum. And more air = hotter fire.
If you mean “if you theoretically magically deleted the smoke and only the smoke in an enclosed space without removing any air or bringing in more air, would it burn hotter,” the answer is no. There’s no additional oxygen introduced so the fire would burn exactly as it was before deleting the smoke. And removing the smoke particles means your air is diluted, which imperceptibly makes the fire burn less hot.
Further, more smoke would be produced to replace it, so deleting the smoke was a momentary change that doesn’t last.
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