why flames change color as the get hotter?
In: Chemistry
[Blackbody radiation.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-body_radiation) The name comes from a thought experiment where you imagine an object that *only* radiates energy, it does not at all reflect any energy at all.
All things, all the time, give off photons. Any time a charged particle does anything, it gives off a photon to “communicate” that action. Atoms are full of charged particles, electrons and protons, and because those things aren’t at absolute zero, they are wiggling with Brownian motion.
The more energy the particle has, the more energy it needs to “communicate” via photons. So, something moving quickly because it has more energy will give off more energy as photons. The frequency of a photon determines its energy: higher frequency means more energy. Frequency is also what we perceive as color. Thus: something with more thermal energy gives off photons with a higher frequency, which we perceive as a different color.
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