is smoke considered a gas?
In: Physics
Smoke is a mixture of heated vapors (gasses) and particulates (solids in ultra-fine dust form). It is suspended in the air, so it can behave like a gas, but it is not wholly one substance.
Smoke are “dust” particles suspended in air in the same way a sandstorm are particles in air smoke are just smaller particles.
No not really.
Smoke is made up of gas and floating particulate.
There’s absolutely gas in the smoke coming off a fire, Carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and your normal mix of nitrogen, left over oxygen, and other things.
But, most of what you can see, the black/gray stuff. Is ash/soot particles that are suspended in the air. These things aren’t gases, they’re solids thatre just light enough that they can float around in the turbulent air for a little bit like dust before eventually falling back down again.
No, not at all, matter of fact, the distinction between “gas”/”vapor” vs “smoke” is quite specific in practice as “gas”/”vapor” represents a physical state of matter, in that, relative to temperature, all matter can be either a solid(ice), a liquid(water), a gas/vapor(steam), or Plasma, but less commonly, without actually changing composition, this is why steam cools & becomes water again, & water cools & becomes ice again, because all three are “H2O” just in different physical states.
(note: not all matters relevant temperatures are the same, H2O is liquid at room temperature, whereas iron is liquid at 1500+ degrees.)
In contrast, “smoke” is an indication that a collection of matter is no longer what it used to be, it has been broken down, disassembled, destroyed, the “smoke” from a wood fire will never be the wood it once was again, the wood has been deconstructed molecularly leaving behind only some of the carbon(ash), one could say that “smoke” is a physical state of non existence in that the elements that once combined to be “wood” are no longer in a physical state which can be referred to as “wood”, most of them have floated away into the atmosphere as particles of other, newly formed, matter.
This is why, when textiles burn, the smoke is dangerous to breath, because many of the newly formed particles of matter are toxic.
(note: Essentially, “vapor”, is simply, sub critical temperature “gas”, aside from a few select applications, for all intense & purposes, they are applicably synonymous.)
Smoke is a mixture of hot gas and particulates from whatever is burning–so a coal fire will have bits of ash and unburnt coal mixed in with the smoke, for instance. This is where the soot that builds up in the chimney comes from, it’s the particles in the smoke settling out on the walls of the chimney.
No, smoke is considered a mix of solids liquids and gasses (depending on what and how you’re burning). In a sealed chamber, the microscopic solid particulates and tiny drops of liquid will eventually settle on the chamber walls.
Visible smoke, like from a bonfire generally has a high proportion of fine particles suspended in gas.
In general: if you can see it with the naked eye, it’s not entirely gas. Gasses are completely invisible, except over large areas like our atmosphere.
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