Fire feels burning. I am feeling so awkward while writing this article. But do you know why fire is hot? Today we are going to look forward for the reason behind it. Let's go deeper.
The Reason
Fire is the visual result of the rapid exothermic oxidation of gaseous fuel (any fuel's surface is first vaporized) by an oxidizer (oxidizing agents like Oxygen, Nitrogen, Fluorine etc.).
A single oxidation reaction is caused due to presence of heat, fuel and oxidizer. Being exothermic (releasing energy in the form of heat among others), it provides more heat and causes rapid burning.
Such a huge amount of heat energy being released at such rapid rate causes us to perceive most fires as hot, whereas slower oxidation processes, like rusting, are not considered as hot.
Let's involve more scientific terms in this explanation.
First of all, fire is due to very exothermic reactions (Chemical reactions that liberate energy) and thus deliver a lot of energy in its lower form heat (Sometime if produce also light which is the highest form of energy).
Second, fire is a chain reaction, it means the reaction of one molecule produce two or more reactive molecule (Here radicals). This create a “violent” reaction which means the energy mention above is released fast. If the reaction is fast enough you move from a fire to explosion by the way.
Last, the chemical species involved in fire is radical that are highly reactive, that’s why fire when started is hard to stop.
The End Notes
Some “fire” can be relatively cold, they call it cold flames. They are associated with flame because the mechanism is the same as in a hot flame involving radicals. That's all in this article. I hope you liked it. Please share your views in the comment section below. Cheers!
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