What makes fire “hot”?

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Would in theory be possible to have a similar reaction that burns something without releasing heat?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Fire is a chain reaction, where the oxidation of one molecule releases energy, giving another molecule enough energy to react, and so on and so forth. As a product of the reaction, hot gasses are released.

This is the difference between iron rusting and a magnesium fire.

So a “cold fire” wouldn’t be a fire, but just room temperature oxidation, again like rusting. Or butter going bad.

Note, iron rusting still releases energy, it gets warmer, but it’s not a chain reaction, so it doesn’t rapidly spiral out of control.

Some other reactions actually consume heat, like a cold pack.

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