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A burning candle. 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] At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition point, flames are produced.
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]
The ancient Greek concept of four basic elements, these being earth (γῆ gê), water (ὕδωρ hýdōr), air (ἀήρ aḗr), and fire (πῦρ pŷr), dates from pre-Socratic times and persisted throughout the Middle Ages and into the Early modern period, deeply influencing European thought and culture.
Fire was one of many archai proposed by the pre-Socratics, most of whom sought to reduce the cosmos, or its creation, to a single substance. Heraclitus (c. 535 BCE – c. 475 BCE) considered fire to be the most fundamental of all elements. He believed fire gave rise to the other three elements: "All things are an interchange for fire, and fire ...
Title page to the first edition. Intended for young beginners, for whom it is well adapted, as an introduction to the study of chemistry. [3]According to Frank Wilczek: . It is a wonderful laying-bare of surprising facts and intricate structure in a (superficially) familiar process — the burning of a candle.
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.
Chemical reactions such as combustion in fire, fermentation and the reduction of ores to metals were known since antiquity. Initial theories of transformation of materials were developed by Greek philosophers, such as the Four-Element Theory of Empedocles stating that any substance is composed of the four basic elements – fire, water, air and ...
Ash is the solid remnants of fires. [1] Specifically, ash refers to all non-aqueous, non-gaseous residues that remain after something burns.In analytical chemistry, to analyse the mineral and metal content of chemical samples, ash is the non-gaseous, non-liquid residue after complete combustion.