What exactly is a flame made of? And why does it have that specific shape?
In: Physics
When you heat stuff up to high enough temperatures, it begins to glow. This is just the energy that’s been crammed in being released as heat. Red is a cool glow, then as we get through yellow and white and eventually bluish, things are hotter and hotter. This is how filament light bulbs work. The electricity makes them so hot that they begin to glow.
Fire is when stuff reacts with oxygen. This reaction creates gases (carbon dioxide and water vapour) and a lot of heat. The colour you see as a flame is just these gasses glowing because they are really hot.
The shape is basically because gravity means hot gases will float upwards. The hot gases released by burning begin to drift upwards. As they do, they cool down, meaning they stop glowing at some point. The gases in the middle of the flame stay hotter for longer because they are surrounded by other hot gases, so the middle of the flame is taller.
Here’s a (https://youtu.be/tMDKeBaLWDw) about it 🙂
Oh, also, the gravity thing means that flames in space (inside a ship) are spherical 🙂
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