Is fire a gas? It's not a solid and it's not a liquid so is it a gas?
Louis Hesketh (aged 7), Bath, UK
- Is it not a combination of gases - of the oxygen needed to feed the thing plus the gases given off by whatever it is that is burning ?
Shaun Tooze, Barrow-in-Furness, England, UK
- The particles of the materials in the fire emit light when heated and dance about with the products of the burning as each material falls into its components. So you get red-hot and yellow-hot particles with emitted gas that break from and combine with the air and so flickering flames in random patterns of fractionation and combination.
Nicholas Hewlett, Bradford, UK
See AlsoThe Chemistry of Combustion
- Fire is a plasma, not a gas or a solid. It's a kind of transient state between being composed of the elements prior to ignition and the spent fumes (Smoke - solid particles and Gasses = Gas molecules.) During burning the atoms of the fuel combine with the oxygen and the resultant energy released causes the plasma state which gives off energy in the form of light and heat (Flame). It was once given a name 'Flagiston' but could never be captured (obviously) as it is a change in energy state and not a substance.
Barry Cooper, Blackpool, UK
- It is neither gas or solid. It's a plasma. The emission of light and heat in the transient state as the fuel is combined with the oxidiser (usually oxygen). As it is transient it cannot be captured and only exists at the point of conversion from one set of atoms or molecules to another set of molecules.
Barry Cooper, Blackpool, UK
- Normal flames are not nearly hot enough to crate a true plasma at normal atmospheric pressures. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_(physics)for the definition of a plasma. A flame is glowing combustion products.
G. Baker, S. Ockendon, U.K
