WEBVTT - SYSK Selects: How Fire Works 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:05.840 Hi, folks. From October four, two thousand twelve. My Saturday 0:00:05.880 --> 0:00:10.440 select pick is how fire works. Yeah, you can light 0:00:10.480 --> 0:00:13.920 a match, Sure, you can use a magnifying glass, and 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:16.239 you might be able to rub two sticks together or 0:00:16.360 --> 0:00:19.119 use a flint in stone. But that is all just 0:00:19.320 --> 0:00:21.400 starting a fire. How fire actually works is much more 0:00:21.440 --> 0:00:24.480 complicated and very very cool. So give it a listen. 0:00:24.480 --> 0:00:29.880 Why don't you welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a 0:00:30.000 --> 0:00:38.479 production of My Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, and 0:00:38.520 --> 0:00:41.159 welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with me. It's 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:45.519 always as Charles w. Chuckle Bryant said, and uh, this 0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:48.400 is stuff you should know, Josh. We let me stand 0:00:48.440 --> 0:00:54.480 next to your fire. Sure, okay, come come over here 0:00:54.640 --> 0:00:57.800 right now? Okay, sorry, Well it's nice and warm over here, 0:00:57.880 --> 0:01:02.080 isn't it. I'm feverish. It's smoky, and I feel like 0:01:02.080 --> 0:01:05.200 there's chemical reactions taking place before my very eyes. There are. 0:01:05.520 --> 0:01:08.720 That's why there's fire. If fire is nothing if not 0:01:08.840 --> 0:01:15.720 a chemical reaction. Yeah, I got so. Okay. Have you 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:21.000 heard of the Wine Cooff Hotel? Yeah? But born and 0:01:21.080 --> 0:01:24.399 raised here? Ye? Uh, the Allis Hotel? Was that the 0:01:24.400 --> 0:01:26.840 hotel fire? Yeah? Yeah, you know that it's now the 0:01:26.840 --> 0:01:29.000 Ellis Hotel. It's at the corner of Peach Tree and Ellis. 0:01:29.400 --> 0:01:33.520 Nice referbish hotel. Back in it was called the Wine 0:01:33.520 --> 0:01:35.399 Coff Hotel and it was the site of the most 0:01:35.400 --> 0:01:41.240 disastrous casualty wise hotel fire in US history. In December 0:01:41.319 --> 0:01:46.200 nineteen people died right right here in Atlanta, very said 0:01:46.840 --> 0:01:51.360 forty four. Just under forty four years later, in Las Vegas, Nevada, 0:01:52.000 --> 0:01:55.680 the MGM Grand had a hotel fire. People died. Do 0:01:55.720 --> 0:01:58.600 you remember the MGM fire GM Grand fire? It was 0:01:58.640 --> 0:02:01.200 a big deal, not at all, you you. I'm surprised 0:02:01.200 --> 0:02:03.400 because I kind of remember, like seeing footage of that. 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:08.360 When was this? Oh no, I don't remember. So both 0:02:08.360 --> 0:02:11.520 of these fires and all the loss of life associated 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:16.280 with them were the direct result of hubris towards fire. 0:02:16.880 --> 0:02:20.560 The Wine Cough their fire exits one stairwell for the 0:02:20.560 --> 0:02:23.680 whole building. I think it was like nineteen stories or 0:02:23.720 --> 0:02:28.840 something like that. Um, the MGM Grand, they they didn't 0:02:29.120 --> 0:02:32.400 put up like sixty dollars for a fire detection system 0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:34.720 in this one part of the hotel that would have 0:02:34.720 --> 0:02:39.080 saved everyone's lives. A part hubrist, part of financial shenanigans, right, 0:02:39.120 --> 0:02:43.400 But isn't that kind of based on Hubris. My point 0:02:43.480 --> 0:02:45.760 is is that if there's one thing that we shouldn't 0:02:45.760 --> 0:02:49.120 have hubris towards its fire. Agreed. Do you think we 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:53.600 might control fire thanks to Prometheus being given it by 0:02:53.639 --> 0:02:57.160 the gods? Yep? But fire controls us when it really 0:02:57.200 --> 0:02:59.239 comes down to it. That's right. You gotta face off 0:02:59.280 --> 0:03:02.079 a tete a tete fire. You're gonna lose, buddy, because 0:03:02.520 --> 0:03:06.200 you're combustible. Yeah. And so also we should say here 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:09.919 that this fire as um it should be a prequel 0:03:10.080 --> 0:03:14.640 to the how wildfires work and how um spontantaneous human 0:03:14.639 --> 0:03:18.359 combustion works. Those two episodes were great. Agreed, This will 0:03:18.919 --> 0:03:21.440 seal up our triumvirate, and now we're going to explain 0:03:21.480 --> 0:03:23.840 how fire works. Yeah. I do have a couple of 0:03:23.880 --> 0:03:26.480 quick stats. We're talking about the deadly nature of fire 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:29.880 does kill more people than any other force of nature. 0:03:30.120 --> 0:03:34.800 I couldn't find that any source for that, but I 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:36.560 still I was searching for it, and it brought up 0:03:36.600 --> 0:03:39.480 like a handful of plagiarized versions of this article on 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:42.560 the internet. Really. Yeah, those are always fun, especially when 0:03:42.560 --> 0:03:44.600 it's your own. This one is not mine. This is 0:03:44.640 --> 0:03:47.360 a bill Hart, Tom Harris, Tom Harris. UM, But I 0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:49.560 do have some stats in the US, at least in 0:03:49.600 --> 0:03:55.640 two thousand ten for residential building fires, over people died 0:03:56.120 --> 0:03:58.160 that year, And that's sort of in the wheelhouse. It 0:03:58.200 --> 0:04:04.920 fluctuates between uh about thirty hundred a year from building fires. Uh. 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:06.720 Cooking is far and away the leading cause of a 0:04:06.760 --> 0:04:11.920 building fire, and arson is number two. Huh, which I 0:04:11.960 --> 0:04:14.720 would have thought, like falling asleep with a cigarette would 0:04:14.760 --> 0:04:19.720 would be above arson. UM and then total in two 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:22.080 thousand nine, and I guess this counts like any kind 0:04:22.080 --> 0:04:24.440 of fire in the US, they were close to thirty 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:29.520 deaths that year, so that you know, that's a lot. Yeah, 0:04:29.560 --> 0:04:33.080 I mean that's more than um, I'm sure killed by 0:04:33.200 --> 0:04:35.599 volcanoes in the US every year. I think you're right, 0:04:35.640 --> 0:04:37.960 you know, yes, that's just one or two people falling 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:41.200 into kill awea from getting too close. Have you seen 0:04:41.240 --> 0:04:45.640 that footage of that scientists going, Um, he's collecting some 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:49.760 sort of I guess magma from an active volcano in Hawaii, 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:53.640 and um, it was really nerve racking because he goes up, 0:04:53.880 --> 0:04:56.240 takes the sample. He's climbing up the rim and then 0:04:56.279 --> 0:04:59.080 climbs back down and right when he steps away from it, 0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:02.080 the magma come up over the rim exactly where he'd 0:05:02.080 --> 0:05:05.560 just been climbing like five minutes before, and so it 0:05:05.600 --> 0:05:08.920 would have like just just completely disintegrated him. I imagine 0:05:09.440 --> 0:05:12.559 what did he say. I don't know, like, holy crap, 0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:14.360 did you just see that? Well, the guy who was 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:19.240 filming it was like narrating like this is so stupid. Yeah, 0:05:19.240 --> 0:05:21.240 it's very cool. I don't know what you'd search, but 0:05:21.320 --> 0:05:24.000 it's up there on the internet somewhere search wa pony 0:05:24.040 --> 0:05:28.239 wou and that should do it, so Chuck. The Greeks 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:31.760 thought that fire was one of the four elements earth wire, water, 0:05:32.640 --> 0:05:37.000 wind and fire. Earth wind and fire and water and 0:05:37.120 --> 0:05:42.520 nash and young silly Greeks. Uh. The reason why that 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:46.680 doesn't really hold up is because um, earth, fire, air, 0:05:47.320 --> 0:05:51.919 these are elements. They're matter, Yeah, they're made up of atoms. 0:05:52.240 --> 0:05:58.960 Fire is the physical manifestation of matter changing form. It's 0:05:59.000 --> 0:06:01.400 pretty cool, like when you think of it that way. 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:05.520 We're going to describe how this happens. Alright, I can 0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:09.359 tackle some of this. Chemistry is not my forte but 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:13.000 it is a chemical reaction at its core between oxygen 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:17.800 and um fuel, which I mean, we'll probably let's talk 0:06:17.839 --> 0:06:20.000 about like a camp fire. Let's go with wood. Wood 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:22.680 fire is probably the easiest way to describe it. But 0:06:22.720 --> 0:06:24.559 the wood is the fuel. The wood is the fuel. 0:06:24.600 --> 0:06:27.480 Oxygen is found in the air, that's right. But for 0:06:27.520 --> 0:06:30.760 these things to uh make fire, you gotta have something 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:33.800 called combustion, yeah, and which means you're gonna have have 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:37.880 some sort of a spark. Um. Well, actually not always, 0:06:38.320 --> 0:06:40.760 because as we find out, some things can combust without 0:06:40.760 --> 0:06:43.479 a spark. I think if they get hot enough, like 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:46.440 the heat is just so intense that it doesn't need 0:06:46.680 --> 0:06:49.360 any spark, right, Yeah, But for wood, you have to 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:53.360 get it up to um. Uh it's ignition temperature, which 0:06:53.360 --> 0:06:57.800 is about three d degrees fahrenheit fifty degrees cel, which 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:00.960 is where you're gonna start seeing some smoke because that 0:07:01.080 --> 0:07:04.640 is cellulose burning away. Uh. And it just occurred to 0:07:04.680 --> 0:07:07.000 me reading this today, like where there's smoke, there's fire. 0:07:07.120 --> 0:07:10.680 Not true, yeah, because things can smoke without there being 0:07:10.840 --> 0:07:14.240 a fire. Yeah. Actually a byproduct of fire. You know, 0:07:14.640 --> 0:07:18.920 um doesn't smoke, so I guess in order to if 0:07:18.960 --> 0:07:21.320 you're one of the people that now says the bottom 0:07:21.320 --> 0:07:24.200 of the totem pole or instead of top of the 0:07:24.240 --> 0:07:28.920 totem pole. Then we can further reinforce this obnoxious quality 0:07:28.960 --> 0:07:33.160 by encouraging you to say, where there's smoke, there is ignition, 0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:38.240 temperature of a combustible fuel, there's volatile gases. It's nice 0:07:38.560 --> 0:07:40.880 way to go chucked. All right, thanks? So, yeah, heat 0:07:41.080 --> 0:07:45.120 is heat decomposes fuel where wills to say would and 0:07:45.120 --> 0:07:48.720 in the case of would, specifically, it decomposes the um 0:07:49.000 --> 0:07:52.880 volatile gases contained in the solid matter. Right, So these 0:07:52.960 --> 0:07:55.640 volatile gases start to heat up themselves, and while they're 0:07:55.640 --> 0:07:59.680 doing that, the cellulose, the solid stuff is decomposing in 0:07:59.760 --> 0:08:02.960 turning into what's called char. Yeah, I got a little 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:06.120 thing on cell cellulostional Q and then you can just 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:08.240 take a home, no man, because that's where I get confused. 0:08:08.600 --> 0:08:14.520 I'm confused to cellulose about of what is cellulose, And 0:08:14.600 --> 0:08:16.640 that's what like, that's where you make paper, that's what 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:19.640 you make paper from. That's what you make cellulosic ethanol from, too, 0:08:19.760 --> 0:08:24.400 and it's what you make cellophane out of. Cellophane is 0:08:25.120 --> 0:08:30.280 regenerated cellulose. So it's it's like it looks like plastic, 0:08:30.320 --> 0:08:32.480 but it's not. I had no idea. It is a 0:08:32.480 --> 0:08:35.040 man made as I'm sorry, it's a natural polymer. Plastic 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:40.520 is manmade obviously, So cellophane is nothing more than regenerated 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:44.439 paper in a way. Wow, like they had some other 0:08:44.440 --> 0:08:47.559 stuff to it. But that's why it's biodegradable. And I 0:08:47.559 --> 0:08:51.480 always wonder why. I like, supposedly cellophane is biodegradable. It's like, 0:08:51.520 --> 0:08:55.360 that's impossible. It's plastic, but it's not plastic. There's this 0:08:55.400 --> 0:08:58.720 old cellophane and from like the fifties maybe, and it's 0:08:58.760 --> 0:09:01.319 like good things coming twos and it's like these this 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:06.160 pair of twins wrapped in cellophane, Oh my god, and 0:09:06.200 --> 0:09:08.920 they're just like kind of looking around. But yeah, you 0:09:08.920 --> 0:09:10.480 can imagine they only have them in there for a 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:13.319 few seconds before they snapped the picture. For I did 0:09:13.320 --> 0:09:16.839 not know that about cellophane. Back to the podcast right there, 0:09:16.840 --> 0:09:18.600 and I don't know about that. Hats off to you 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:20.120 all right back to you know, I know what the 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:22.280 fact of the podcast is. You're gonna save it for 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:50.400 when it comes. We gotta save it. Okay. So, um, 0:09:50.440 --> 0:09:55.960 you've got the cellulose, the solid matter of wood separating 0:09:56.000 --> 0:09:59.319 now from the volatile um gases that are starting to 0:09:59.400 --> 0:10:04.200 lift off. That's smoke, right, yes, Okay, the wood, the 0:10:04.240 --> 0:10:07.400 solid matter starting to turn into char um. And that 0:10:07.559 --> 0:10:11.720 is basically if you if you burn would if you 0:10:11.840 --> 0:10:14.600 heat it up and you separate the gases, which are 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:19.280 the smoke, what remains is carbon and what what charcoal 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:23.520 is is charred wood that's had the volatile gases burned 0:10:23.559 --> 0:10:26.199 out of it, which is why when you have a 0:10:26.320 --> 0:10:29.800 charcoal fire, you don't have smoke, yeah, or not much 0:10:29.800 --> 0:10:33.960 at least, yeah, because the gases have already been burned off. Yeah, 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:36.040 and charcoal too. That got that kind of got me 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:40.360 on charcoal filtering because these charcoal is a filter and 0:10:40.400 --> 0:10:42.400 I think these it is a scrubber two on smoke stacks. 0:10:43.840 --> 0:10:46.280 And uh, if you're like I did some of those 0:10:46.280 --> 0:10:48.360 survival articles at one point, and one of the things 0:10:48.360 --> 0:10:51.440 you can do to purify water is take your char 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:55.160 from your fire, put it in like you know, cool 0:10:55.200 --> 0:10:58.160 it down obviously and then put it in. Then put 0:10:58.200 --> 0:11:01.960 it in like a hanky and in running creek water 0:11:02.160 --> 0:11:06.240 through that to collect it underneath. That's awesome. And uh, 0:11:06.280 --> 0:11:09.640 and there's like real charcoal filters too. But apparently charcoal 0:11:10.080 --> 0:11:12.680 has a quality because once it's pure carbon like that, 0:11:13.240 --> 0:11:17.240 it um has a knack for filtering out things like 0:11:17.720 --> 0:11:21.360 impurities like chlorine and letting other stuff get through. So 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:24.679 that's why it's used as a filter. Yeah, because essentially 0:11:24.679 --> 0:11:27.880 what you're making is a carbon filter. Yeah. Charcoal is 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:31.920 like basically pure carbon with all the impurities burned off. Yeah, 0:11:31.960 --> 0:11:34.800 those impurities burned off as smoke. They're volatile gases, So 0:11:34.800 --> 0:11:37.680 it's pretty neat. Yeah, that's pretty awesome, little survival tip man, 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:40.160 you're killing it today? Well now that this is when 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:43.200 I go to sleep though. Okay, So, um, the third 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:47.679 component of burned wood, You've got the volatile gases smoke, 0:11:48.080 --> 0:11:51.679 you have the char the charcoal, which is carbon, and 0:11:51.720 --> 0:11:54.600 then you have ash, which is unburnable minerals like um, 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:58.760 calcium or phosphorus, I believe. Yeah, And if you like 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:01.520 you ever cooked with brick ets, charcoal, briqutts, you're gonna 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:03.200 get a lot more ash with that because it has 0:12:03.240 --> 0:12:05.240 a lot of more like byproducts in it. Then if 0:12:05.240 --> 0:12:07.240 you use like real wood charcoal, right, but they're not 0:12:07.240 --> 0:12:09.280 gonna smoke, They're just not gonna burn. It's just gonna 0:12:09.320 --> 0:12:11.040 be left over. Like you can't get rid of it. 0:12:11.080 --> 0:12:14.000 You can pounded into oblivion, but it's still there. Yeah. 0:12:14.040 --> 0:12:16.439 But if you use the real wood coal then a char, 0:12:16.760 --> 0:12:19.320 then you'll notice you don't get a lot of that stuff. 0:12:19.520 --> 0:12:22.480 Oh is that right? Yeah? Okay, but the cats aren't 0:12:22.480 --> 0:12:25.840 as nasty a synthetic Brits. No, they're made from char 0:12:26.040 --> 0:12:29.719 and like binding agents and stuff like that. And saw that. No. 0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:32.360 I actually used to hear that, like, oh, you can't 0:12:32.360 --> 0:12:34.920 cook with briquettes are so nasty. But they're really I 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:37.520 looked into it. It's not super nasty. I mean you 0:12:37.600 --> 0:12:41.640 probably should cook with siwihere in between nasty and super nasty. Yeah, 0:12:41.679 --> 0:12:44.680 well it's not. It's not as bad as I thought. 0:12:44.760 --> 0:12:46.680 I thought it was like a bunch of chemical agents 0:12:46.679 --> 0:12:49.920 and glue and cement, and that's not the case. I 0:12:49.960 --> 0:12:53.240 got to It's not the hot dogs of cooking materials. 0:12:53.840 --> 0:12:57.920 That's the corn dog. Okay, um okay, So we've got 0:12:57.920 --> 0:13:03.000 the components right, yeah. Um. As these volatile um gases 0:13:03.240 --> 0:13:08.319 continue to heat up um too about five degrees fahrenheit 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:15.520 two six degrees celsius, they the molecules break apart, and 0:13:15.520 --> 0:13:19.679 when they break apart, they go to combine with oxygen 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:23.360 oxidation right um. And the same thing happens with the 0:13:23.400 --> 0:13:25.120 carbon in the wood, but this takes pace in place 0:13:25.200 --> 0:13:28.800 much more slowly. But one of the the stars of 0:13:28.840 --> 0:13:32.679 this chemical reaction, this change of breaking down to these 0:13:32.720 --> 0:13:36.239 molecules and then the recombining into other things like carbon dioxide, 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:41.520 carbon monoxide. Water. Isn't that weird that fire produces water? Um, 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:44.199 that's why sometimes you have steam coming from a fire, 0:13:44.280 --> 0:13:49.160 right um. The star of all this chemical reactions, all 0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:53.120 these chemical reactions is heat is produced. Heat, energy is released, 0:13:53.400 --> 0:13:56.199 which allows us to cook and be comfortable and feel 0:13:56.200 --> 0:13:58.840 secure and all the good stuff that comes with fire exactly. 0:13:59.280 --> 0:14:02.720 And because of the heat that's released as these things 0:14:02.760 --> 0:14:06.839 are heated up, Um, it is sustainable. That means a 0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:09.480 fire is sustainable so long as there's fuel and there's 0:14:09.480 --> 0:14:13.000 oxygen present. Yeah. That was the kind of creepy part, 0:14:13.080 --> 0:14:15.880 or not creepy, but it's self perpetuating, like that flame 0:14:16.559 --> 0:14:18.959 is gonna heat up any fuel near it to the 0:14:19.000 --> 0:14:24.040 point where it can release those gases to recombine with oxygen. 0:14:24.160 --> 0:14:28.080 It's pretty elegant if you think about it. Yeah. Another 0:14:28.680 --> 0:14:33.080 big star of fire besides heat is light, and part 0:14:33.120 --> 0:14:37.680 of that is from the same um the carbon atoms right, yeah, 0:14:37.800 --> 0:14:41.800 that are combining, that are being torn apart. The molecules 0:14:41.840 --> 0:14:44.960 that UM form up the char breaking down in their 0:14:45.000 --> 0:14:51.440 constituent carbon atoms when they combine with oxygen, right recombine, Yeah, 0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:55.200 I think that would make carbon monoxide. But as they 0:14:55.280 --> 0:14:59.960 change um, they they're electrons will go up and erge 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:03.000 level will change orbit and when they come back down 0:15:03.560 --> 0:15:06.240 they emit. They release some of that energy that they 0:15:06.280 --> 0:15:09.400 have and they release it in the form of photons. 0:15:09.600 --> 0:15:14.240 They produce light um and indescence, right, Yeah, it's it's 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:18.800 heat producing light. Like we talked about bioluminescence, where basically 0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:21.360 heat up a filament in a light bulb and it glows. 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:23.880 That's the same thing with the fire. It's the same 0:15:23.920 --> 0:15:26.640 based on the same principle, which is incandescence. Pretty awesome 0:15:27.360 --> 0:15:32.440 and depending on the temperature, uh, different colored light is 0:15:32.480 --> 0:15:35.880 going to be produced. Yeah, Like uh you remember the 0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:39.680 bunsen burners back in chemistry class and how the buns 0:15:39.680 --> 0:15:41.600 and burners have little slots on the side that you 0:15:41.640 --> 0:15:44.560 can vary the amount of like oxygen getting in there. 0:15:45.120 --> 0:15:47.160 You know, there's the little flickering orange flame of a 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:49.040 buns and burner. Then if you let a lot more 0:15:49.040 --> 0:15:52.400 oxygen in, it's going to be more Uh, it's gonna 0:15:52.400 --> 0:15:55.200 be more hot. And that's why that's when it's gonna 0:15:55.240 --> 0:15:58.200 be that blue jet the same as when you see 0:15:58.240 --> 0:16:00.920 like a jet plane, like right next to where the 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:02.960 flame comes out, it's gonna be like really blue, and 0:16:02.960 --> 0:16:05.400 then it gets more orange and yellow, you know, like 0:16:05.440 --> 0:16:08.840 the Batmobile. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. I know 0:16:08.880 --> 0:16:11.640 exactly original bile No. Um, we've seen a bunch of 0:16:11.640 --> 0:16:16.400 batmobiles recently. There's a documentary about the Batmobile. That's what 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:18.920 all those were there for a comic con. Okay, we 0:16:19.000 --> 0:16:20.840 had a mum and I had our picture taken with 0:16:20.880 --> 0:16:27.360 it with which one the new one, the tumbler, that's 0:16:27.400 --> 0:16:29.120 what they called the new one, is it? Yeah? The 0:16:29.160 --> 0:16:31.440 Chrystalin one is called the tongue. The chrystal one was. 0:16:31.880 --> 0:16:35.080 It's awesome, It's pretty cool. Uh so yeah. The the 0:16:35.120 --> 0:16:38.000 reason why the blue one happens to be a different 0:16:38.000 --> 0:16:41.160 color and hotter is because there's more energy being released, 0:16:41.920 --> 0:16:45.840 that's right. Uh. The lower energy and slightly less hot 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:49.640 part of the flame that glows orange yellow is at 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:52.840 the top and um, the reason the flame is pointed 0:16:53.360 --> 0:16:55.960 this is this is pretty awesome, not the fact of 0:16:55.960 --> 0:17:00.600 the podcast. The space part is okay, I think, all right, 0:17:00.640 --> 0:17:02.760 go ahead. Then, So a flame is pointed and it 0:17:02.760 --> 0:17:06.840 burns upward because the gases that are burning what you're 0:17:06.840 --> 0:17:09.640 burning right there are volatile gases. They're being burned off 0:17:09.760 --> 0:17:15.000 right um as they as they burn there, they're hotter, 0:17:15.119 --> 0:17:19.280 but they're also less dance and they're moving upward towards 0:17:19.480 --> 0:17:22.600 the less dense air above it, which causes it to 0:17:22.640 --> 0:17:25.640 be pointed. But if you were to light you take 0:17:25.640 --> 0:17:27.600 it for granted, but it's kind of cool to know 0:17:27.640 --> 0:17:30.200 how that works. Yeah, that's why it always burns upward. Yeah, 0:17:30.200 --> 0:17:33.240 it tends to burn upward. No, it always does, always 0:17:33.240 --> 0:17:37.000 burns upward. And that's also why it's pointed too, because 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:40.240 the air around it is dense and it's pushing it in. Right. 0:17:40.400 --> 0:17:42.840 Pretty awesome, But if you were to light a fire 0:17:43.000 --> 0:17:47.159 in zero gravity, it would burn as a sphere. I 0:17:47.200 --> 0:17:50.120 want to see this, I mean, can it be done 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:53.080 if we go into zero gravity? Sure we have, but 0:17:53.119 --> 0:17:55.120 I mean they have zero gravity environments? Is do they 0:17:55.119 --> 0:17:57.800 a tech? Surely someone has started a fire in one 0:17:57.800 --> 0:17:59.760 of those just to see this. I think it's a 0:17:59.800 --> 0:18:02.680 really bad thing if a fire starts in a zero 0:18:02.720 --> 0:18:06.640 gravity environment. I guess. So that's I just gotta think 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:09.159 that someone's tried this. I'm sure. I'm sure there's a 0:18:09.200 --> 0:18:11.200 video of it on YouTube. Now there's probably a good 0:18:11.200 --> 0:18:13.440 reason why. And someone's gonna write and say, huge dummies. 0:18:13.640 --> 0:18:15.440 Don't you understand that when you start a fire in 0:18:15.520 --> 0:18:43.520 zero gravity that we all die? That's right? Yeah? Okay, 0:18:43.720 --> 0:18:47.080 so steam, let's talk about steam, because because we talked 0:18:47.119 --> 0:18:49.919 about the recombination of atoms, when these gases are released, 0:18:50.400 --> 0:18:52.639 the same thing happens when you boil water. You know, 0:18:52.680 --> 0:18:55.760 you get this this gas mixing with oxygen in the air, 0:18:56.080 --> 0:19:00.639 but it's not going to combust, thank thankfully, or cooking 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:04.359 would be much more dangerous. Um. It's because some of 0:19:04.359 --> 0:19:07.679 these atoms aren't as attracted to each other. In the 0:19:07.680 --> 0:19:11.080 case of water, for sure, they're tepid towards one another. Yeah. 0:19:11.160 --> 0:19:13.800 If you're talking fire, though, they have carbon and hydrogen, 0:19:14.320 --> 0:19:17.399 which are really attracted to oxygen, and so they like 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:21.800 to get together and uh combine, recombine more easily, right, 0:19:21.960 --> 0:19:24.960 pretty simple. Uh. And then we've been talking mostly about 0:19:24.960 --> 0:19:28.080 wood as a fuel, but tons of things are are fuel. 0:19:28.160 --> 0:19:32.280 Gasoline is a good fuel. Gasoline doesn't produce char. Basically, 0:19:32.400 --> 0:19:38.440 heat vaporizes gasoline into nothing but volatile gases which burn. Yeah, 0:19:38.840 --> 0:19:40.960 that's so, there you go. And I always heard too 0:19:40.960 --> 0:19:45.399 that gasoline ignites like the vapor ignites, not the liquid. 0:19:45.440 --> 0:19:48.080 Is that true? Yeah, okay, yeah, it's not the it's 0:19:48.119 --> 0:19:51.479 not the liquid, it's the gas. But heat causes all 0:19:51.520 --> 0:19:56.720 that liquid to turn into the gas. Which, um, So 0:19:56.840 --> 0:20:01.480 different fuels are going to catch at different temperature, and 0:20:01.680 --> 0:20:06.320 no matter what the fuel, it'll have a piloted ignition 0:20:06.320 --> 0:20:11.600 temperature and an unpiloted ignition temperature. Basically, the piloted ignition 0:20:11.600 --> 0:20:17.440 temperature is that um that point that temperature where the 0:20:17.560 --> 0:20:21.840 volatile gases are being released and they're heated up to 0:20:21.920 --> 0:20:24.880 the point where if you introduce a spark, it would 0:20:24.960 --> 0:20:28.119 blow up. That's right. One of the defining characteristics of 0:20:28.119 --> 0:20:32.600 a volatile gas is that um it basically disperses at 0:20:32.680 --> 0:20:36.679 room temperature, I believe, right, Um, So at some point 0:20:38.000 --> 0:20:41.800 introducing a spark is gonna set that off at some temperature, 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:44.679 which I guess means that like if you have gasoline 0:20:44.680 --> 0:20:47.879 cooled to enough of a temperature, just lighting a match 0:20:47.960 --> 0:20:51.880 next to it won't set off the gas. I don't 0:20:51.920 --> 0:20:53.679 know if this is a question we should be raising 0:20:54.760 --> 0:20:57.960 a general audience. Don't try this. I'm curious, so we'll 0:20:58.000 --> 0:21:01.440 have to check that out. But the piloted ignition temperature 0:21:01.480 --> 0:21:03.439 is basically when something gets hit by lightning and the 0:21:03.480 --> 0:21:06.560 heat is so intense that there's no need for a spark. 0:21:07.040 --> 0:21:08.720 It just heats it up the point where now it's 0:21:08.760 --> 0:21:12.040 on fire, where it come bust. Pretty cool. And I 0:21:12.080 --> 0:21:14.000 try to get to the origin of pilot like a 0:21:14.040 --> 0:21:16.960 pilot light, which is the same thing, I guess, and 0:21:17.119 --> 0:21:20.040 I couldn't find it. I don't know where that came from, because, yeah, 0:21:20.040 --> 0:21:21.760 I think about it, You've got the gas burning and 0:21:22.320 --> 0:21:25.399 the it's glowing, yeah, and then you just hit the 0:21:25.440 --> 0:21:27.959 spark and then bam, you just ignited the gas. So 0:21:28.000 --> 0:21:31.320 it's at the pilot, the piloted ignition temperature, and your 0:21:31.320 --> 0:21:34.080 hot water heater. But I'm sure someone knows the answer 0:21:34.080 --> 0:21:36.080 to that, so if you do send it in. We're 0:21:36.160 --> 0:21:39.240 raising a lot of questions in this one and giving 0:21:39.240 --> 0:21:44.359 some answers. Um the shape, and by shape usually they 0:21:44.400 --> 0:21:49.520 mean like surface area of a of a fuel effects 0:21:49.680 --> 0:21:53.560 how efficiently it burns and how easily it burns too. Yeah, 0:21:53.600 --> 0:21:55.200 I mean this is pretty basic. Like if you have 0:21:55.240 --> 0:21:58.040 a big thick log, obviously you're going to have way 0:21:58.119 --> 0:22:01.960 less surface area exposed and combustible then if you had 0:22:02.000 --> 0:22:04.160 like a toothpick. Yeah, and it can absorb a lot 0:22:04.200 --> 0:22:07.560 more heat too, big thick log um. But yeah, if 0:22:07.600 --> 0:22:09.960 you have a bunch of little pieces of wood, it's 0:22:09.960 --> 0:22:13.119 gonna burn more quickly, catch more easily because there's more 0:22:13.119 --> 0:22:16.959 exposed surface surface temperature and more of that fuels is 0:22:17.000 --> 0:22:19.960 exposed to the heat than a big, like you said, 0:22:20.000 --> 0:22:22.240 a big log or something. Yeah, and that's why when 0:22:22.240 --> 0:22:24.200 you're starting you know, if you ever watched a bear 0:22:24.280 --> 0:22:27.520 grills do this thing or less stroud, they try to 0:22:27.560 --> 0:22:30.680 get the little like tiny little shavings from the inside 0:22:30.680 --> 0:22:32.960 of h like you peel away the bark on a 0:22:33.000 --> 0:22:35.560 tree and then get the shavings off of the tree itself. 0:22:36.040 --> 0:22:38.320 And that's the stuff that's gonna like really combust easily 0:22:38.760 --> 0:22:42.400 through friction with like, uh, you know, there's different ways 0:22:42.440 --> 0:22:45.040 of doing the little I've never been I've never done that. 0:22:45.080 --> 0:22:47.399 Have you have you started a fire using like friction? 0:22:48.119 --> 0:22:50.760 Have you really, that's impressive. I do that stuff when 0:22:50.760 --> 0:22:54.320 I go camping now for fun, like in front of 0:22:54.320 --> 0:22:56.760 the real fire. You know that we started with our 0:22:56.920 --> 0:22:59.720 big lighters, and I'm sitting there with my beer and 0:22:59.760 --> 0:23:03.240 my Southern comfort in my comfy chair and the steak 0:23:03.359 --> 0:23:06.160 is on the grill. I'll do some little survival stuff 0:23:06.200 --> 0:23:09.879 just kind of for fun. You know. That's cool until 0:23:09.880 --> 0:23:12.080 I get tired of it and give up. Yeah, but yeah, 0:23:12.080 --> 0:23:15.960 it's fun. Um, Well, hats off to you for knowing 0:23:16.000 --> 0:23:18.000 how to do that. Well, it's pretty easy. I mean 0:23:18.040 --> 0:23:20.520 there's different ways. There's the plow method or the little 0:23:20.520 --> 0:23:23.920 bow uh where you make the little string to bow. Yeah, 0:23:23.960 --> 0:23:26.840 and do that little number. Yeah, I've seen that one. Yeah, 0:23:26.880 --> 0:23:29.960 there's the castaway one. Yeah, that's the plow method. Oh 0:23:30.000 --> 0:23:32.199 that's plow. Yeah, that makes sense. They'd be called that 0:23:33.440 --> 0:23:37.080 you anything else, I don't think. So do you do 0:23:37.000 --> 0:23:39.760 you do you feel like we explain this correctly? And well? Yeah, 0:23:39.840 --> 0:23:43.560 I mean it's it's pretty basic chemistry. We're basically heat 0:23:43.680 --> 0:23:47.720 breaks down a fuel so that it can combine with 0:23:47.760 --> 0:23:52.159 oxygen and ignite, yeah, and then burned. That's right, And 0:23:52.200 --> 0:23:54.640 it's self sustaining so long as there's fuel and oxygen, 0:23:54.760 --> 0:23:56.440