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The fire triangle or combustion triangle is a simple model for understanding the necessary ingredients for most fires. [1] The triangle illustrates the three elements a fire needs to ignite: heat, fuel, and an oxidizing agent (usually oxygen). [2] A fire naturally occurs when the elements are present and combined in the right mixture. [3]
Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. [ 1 ] [ a ] Flames , the most visible portion of the fire, are produced in the combustion reaction when the fuel reaches its ignition point .
Light consists of electromagnetic radiation of different wavelengths. Therefore, when the elements or their compounds are heated either on a flame or by an electric arc they emit energy in the form of light. Analysis of this light, with the help of a spectroscope gives us a discontinuous spectrum. A spectroscope or a spectrometer is an ...
For a tungsten filament at a typical temperature of 3000 K, only a small fraction of the emitted radiation is visible, and the majority is infrared light. This infrared light does not help a person see, but still transfers heat to the environment, making incandescent lights relatively inefficient as a light source. [25]
The inverse or time-reversed process of absorption is thermal radiation. Much of the thermal energy in matter consists of random motion of charged particles, and this energy can be radiated away from the matter. The resulting radiation may subsequently be absorbed by another piece of matter, with the deposited energy heating the material. [55]
Flames of charcoal. A flame (from Latin flamma) is the visible, gaseous part of a fire.It is caused by a highly exothermic chemical reaction made in a thin zone. [1] When flames are hot enough to have ionized gaseous components of sufficient density, they are then considered plasma.
The flame does not provide much light itself, and so a more heat-efficient non-luminous flame is preferred. Unlike simple soot, a mantle uses rare-earth elements to provide a bright white glow; the colour of the glow comes from the spectral lines of these elements, not from simple black-body radiation. [citation needed]
Here, “light” is broadly defined as radiation spanning the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV), ultraviolet (UV), visible, and infrared (IR) regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. To break covalent bonds , photon energies corresponding to visible, UV, or VUV light are typically required, whereas IR photons may be sufficiently energetic to detach ...