Why does wind cause a flame to flicker or go out?
In: Physics
Same reason that blowing on it can cause a flame to go out.
What’s burning in a flame is often not the solid or liquid fuel that you can see, but a gas. For instance, the flame of a wax candle is actually burning a tiny cloud of wax vapor. The heat from the flame cause more wax to melt, draw up into the wick and then vaporize, which keeps feeding the flame with more fuel.
Fast-moving air can blow the cloud of gas away from the heat source, while simultaneously cooling the wick to a point where it cannot vaporize more wax or reignite any remaining vapor.
Fire is light output produced by a chemical reaction. Specifically, the chemical reaction, normally caused by heat in the first place, creates heat that keeps the reaction going, and that heat causes light to be emitted from the chemicals involved. Wind can cool the chemicals involved in the reaction by blowing the super hot gases away from the liquid/solid chemicals and then those hot gases won’t be able to sustain the reaction that was happening.
Fire needs three things: heat, oxygen and fuel. Too much wind can spread the heat too thin and the fire goes out. If the fire is super hot and contained (like a blast furnace) then you can’t spread the heat anywhere, so more wind is just more oxygen and the fire gets hotter
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