• Question: is fire warm?

    Asked by calebjr2018 to Alan, Ciorsdaidh, Lauren, Leonie, Martin, Neil, Shuo on 11 Mar 2018.
    • Photo: Alan McCue

      Alan McCue answered on 11 Mar 2018:


      Well I wouldn’t say warm, i’d say hot! After all, we generally use combustion of chemicals for heating purposes. Different chemicals release different amounts of heast when combusted and this is known as the enthalpy of combustion. As a good rule of thumb, the more carbon atoms, the more heat will be released during combustion.

    • Photo: Martin McCoustra

      Martin McCoustra answered on 12 Mar 2018:


      Yes… You can measure the temperature of the fire by looking at the atoms and molecules produced by it. A typical blue flame in a gas cooker will be over at 2000 degrees. The yellow smoky flame is a lot cooler but still enough to burn you!

    • Photo: Neil Keddie

      Neil Keddie answered on 13 Mar 2018:


      Fire is most definitely warm (if you ever burn yourself on a fire, trust me, you’d know about it!). You can get some fires, especially metal based ones, that can get up to really high temperatures. It is also possible for a whole coal mine to burn on fire for years – google a place called Centralia in the USA, where a fire has been burning since 1962 and has caused whole towns to be evacuated permanently!

    • Photo: Ciorsdaidh Watts

      Ciorsdaidh Watts answered on 13 Mar 2018:


      Fire is an indication of a combustion reaction happening. Combustion occurs when a fuel combines with oxygen to produce carbon dioxide, water, and LOTS of ENERGY (an exothermic reaction). This means that lots of energy (in the form of heat and light) is given out, which is why fire is warm (or hot).

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