– is there a different between fire made by matches and fire made by lighters/gas? As in the final chemical makeup? Is the same looking orange flame made up of different stuff?

Question

Wait.. what even is fire?

In: 1

Answer 1

When a match gets warm it undergoes a process called pyrolysis, where the wood breaks down and gives off combustible gases.

In each case, it is the gases that burn, so it is never the wood in the match that actually burns.

Smoke and yellow flame is indicative of incomplete combustion, where the flame can’t get enough oxygen to cleanly burn all the fuel, but they are the same process.