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Fire

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The word "fire" has many meanings in the English language. Since we can't consider them all here, we will just content ourselves with discussing "fire" as meaning "to burn" or "to combust". Antoine Lavoisier, considered to be the father of chemistry, was the first to published the theory of oxygen combustion in 1783. Lavoisier stated that "when a substance burns or catches fire, it combines with oxygen to form an oxide".

Is there a science to a fire? Yes, you bet there is! The web sites Fire Scienceand the NASA site, Combustion Science, will help us along in our understanding of fire science. So, in order to have a fire what do we need? Initially, three things - fuel, oxygen and an ignition stimulus (lightning, a match or a spark) or heat. Once ignited or started a fire can be defined as a continuous or self-sustaining chemical reaction between the fuel and oxygen, with the production of heat. Heat is needed in order for the fire to carry on or spread. Heat is transferred from the fire to new fuel through either convection or radiation. This relationship can be represented either as a tetrahedron (heat, fuel, oxygen, chemical reaction) or more often as a fire triangle (fuel, oxygen, heat). Elimination of any one element will put the fire out. This is how a fire extinguisher works by either cooling the fire (removal of heat) or smothering it (removal of oxygen). Reeko's Mad Science Lab explains how to make your own fire extinguisher at home.

Want to have some fun with the fire triangle? Great! Let's go to the Nova site, On Fire and enter the virtual fire lab. Fuel has a threshold temperature, if reached, will cause it to ignite (its ignition temperature). Once lit, the heat of combustion allows the fire to spread. The site then goes on to explain the chemical reactions that take place when hydrogen and methane combust.

The NASA site NASA Explores has several lesson plans investigating the various aspects of fire. For younger students there are "parts that make a fire" and "what is a fire". For older students, there is a candle lab that looks into fire in chemical terms and "convention currents and fire".

The copyright of the article Fire in Science Websites is owned by Patrice Bentham . Permission to republish Fire in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.