Fire and Marshmallows
What are the two most important parts of going camping? Of course it’s making a fire and roasting marshmallows. These two fascinating chemical reactions are the topic of my paper.
First of all, how does a fire work? A fire is a chemical reaction known
as combustion. It is a chemical reaction between oxygen in the atmosphere and some sort of fuel such as wood or gasoline (Fire). For the reaction to take place, you have to heat the fuel to its ignition temperature. When wood reaches the temperature of 300 degrees Fahrenheit, or 150 degrees Celsius, the heat starts to decompose parts of the cellulose material that makes up the wood. These decomposing materials release volatile gases. The more common name for these gases, is smoke. Smoke is the combination of the compounds of hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen (Combustion). A fire also forms char and ash. Char is almost pure carbon. It is what you buy when you get charcoal. Charcoal is just wood that was heated to remove everything besides the carbon, hence why it burns without smoke (Charcoal). Ash is all the unburnable minerals in the wood such as calcium and potassium.
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When a fire burns it happens in two separate reactions.
First, the volatile gases break apart and the atoms recombine with the oxygen to form water and carbon dioxide. This is called burning. The reaction for this is:
6C10H15O7 + HEAT -> C50H10O + 10CH2O
This first reaction is a lot quicker than the second one. In the second reaction, carbon in the char combines with oxygen. This reaction happens slowly. This is why charcoal can stay hot for a long period of time. The equation for the second reaction is:
CH2O + 02 -> H20 + CO2 +CO + C +N2
The output of both of these reactions is heat and light. The chemical reactions produce heat which causes the carbon atoms to rise. As they rise, they emit light. This is called incandescence. This is the same thing that causes a lightbulb to light up. It is the flame of the
fire. The flame of a fire depends on what you are burning, and how hot the fire is. The flame can be a variety of different colors. The yellow flame is caused by the small soot particles in the flame. When a burner is regulated it produces a hot, blue flame. This is why bunsen burners burn a blue flame. Jet fuel burns boron which creates an intense green flame. Fire’s chemical reaction is dangerous because once it starts, it is it keeps burning as long as there is fuel and oxygen around. As the fire burns, it creates heat. The heat keeps the fuel at the ignition temperature, therefore, the fire continues to burn. The flames heat up any surrounding fuel. This causes Now for the fun part, the marshmallows. Believe it or not, roasting marshmallows is a chemical reaction. Marshmallows are little bits of fuel. They are made completely of Carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. When you heat the marshmallow, the moisture inside expands causing the marshmallow to expand. As the moisture expands, it looks for a way out. The moisture pokes tiny holes into the marshmallow to let the moisture escape as steam. The sugar in the marshmallow has now caramelized which creates the sweet smell. Oxygen in the air pushes its way into the marshmallow. The oxygen reacts with the carbon, creating the blue flame you see when you hold the marshmallow into the fire too long. The carbon and oxygen atoms combine to make carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide.
For the sample calculations, let’s use the marshmallow as an example. Its initial mass was 0.66 grams and its final mass was 0.36 grams. To calculate the amount burned, subtract 0.36 from 0.66 to get 0.30 grams. (Mass burned = mi- mf). To find the marshmallow’s change in temperature, use the formula (ΔT =
For the first phenomena, he noted how all combustions involved the formation of fire or light. With that in mind, Lavoisier also observed that this combustion occurs only through dephlogisticated air / pure air. Other airs (e.g. carbon dioxide) act as a fire extinguisher similar to that of water. Another combustion phenomenon he outlined was how the weight of the burnt material directly relates to the amount of air used in the reaction. Moreover, he also described how certain substances turn into acids after it has been burn...
Although fire is linked to human life, as it is essential for survival, not only its use for food, security and warmth, particularly in the extreme cold weather
Combustion is a rapid, continuous reaction that usually takes place in the gas phase. Wood is an organic compound primarily comprised of cellulose. For wood, the phase change from a solid to gas is almost instantaneous as combustion occurs (Coleman, et al. 95). Ignition occurs when an outside source is no longer needed to sustain combustion (Coleman, et al. 87).
Stated by The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th Ed. It is said that “Charcoal is a substance obtained by partial burning or carbonization (destructive distillation) of organic material, a charcoal is largely pure carbon.” In addition, The Columbia Encyclopedia said that the entry of air during the carbonization process is controlled so that the organic material does not turn to ash, as in a conventional fire, but decomposes to form charcoal.
Collins, Suzanne. Catching Fire. United States: Shmoop University, 2014. Shmoop. Web. 20 Jan. 2013. .
Most individual have felt a burn, even a slight one at least once in their life, but do you really know what it is or how it might affect your body? A burn is a primarily thermal injury that causes trauma to the skin affecting the epidermis, dermis or both layers of the skin. A burn is classified in nature by the degree or severity of the burn, first degree being the mildest and third degree being the most severe. A burn injury may also be defined as an injury or malaise that has been brought about due to a fire for example, smoke inhalation. Smoke inhalation causes more death in victims that were in a house fire then actual burns. Smoke inhalation is defined as the inhalation of toxic gases such as carbon monoxide.
Investigation of the heat energy produced by combustion of various alcohols. Aim: ---- To investigate how different alcohols produce different amounts of heat energy through combustion. I will be heating water using different alcohols as fuels and measuring the amount of fuel consumed.
Full combustion should generate two products only: carbon dioxide and water vapour. Hypothesis Within a molecule there are bond energies that hold the atoms together. When the fuel combusts, a chemical reaction takes place, this breaks the bonds, this requires energy, and makes new bonds, this gives out energy. The energy differences between the two tell us how much energy was given out or taken in. We can show this in a graph.
Using his knowledge from his science class, he recalls that beside fuel, it also need oxygen to make a fire, so he blows lightly when the spark lands on the tree bark, and he eventually makes the fire. Fire is one of the most important things that support him throughout his survival. It produce heat and light, which warms Brian at night and gives Brian a better vision at night, so he can protect himself from dangers. The fire also helps him avoid mosquitoes, the bumps they left are itchy, and mosquitoes can carry diseases which might make Brian sick. Moreover the fire is also use to cook meat; otherwise the rotten meat is not healthy and will make Brian sick.
Investigating Factors Affecting the Heat of Combustion of Alcohols PLANNING SECTION Introduction ------------ Alcohols are organic substances, and consist of Hydrogen, Oxygen and Carbon. All alcohols are toxic but the amount that can be tolerated by the human body varies for different alcohols. For example drinking small amounts of Methanol can lead to blindness and even death.
Carbon dioxide or CO2 is known to be one of a number of gases that are astonishingly transparent to the visible light that falls on the Earth from the Sun, but it absorb the infra-red radiation that emitted by the warm surface of our Earth, to prevents its loss into space. Moreover, CO2 has varied considerably and this affected the Earth’s temperature. Most common source of this CO2 is known as the fossil fuel. Fossil fuels are primarily coal, hydrocarbons, natural gas, or fuel oil that formed from the remains of the dead plants and also animals. The burning fossil fuel that has been created by humans is the largest source of emissions of the carbon dioxide.
I’ve long been familiar with the concept of coal mines, but a common occurrence I was unfamiliar with previous to this class was the concept of coal mine fires, but it is a huge problem, both economically and environmentally.
In order for a system to gain energy the surroundings have to supply it, and visa versa when the system looses energy the surroundings must gain it. As the energy is transferred it can be converted form its original form to another as the transfer takes place, but the energy will never be created or destroyed. The first law of thermodynamics, also known as the law of conservation of energy, basically restates that energy can’t be destroyed or created “as follows: the total energy of the universe is a constant.” All around the conservation of energy is applied. When gasoline burns in the engine of a car, an equal amount of work and heat appear as the energy is released. The heat from the engine warms its surroundings, the cars parts, the air, and the passenger area. The heat energy is converted into the electrical energy of the radio, chemical energy of the battery, and radiant energy of the lights. The change in the sum of all of the energies formed from the burnt gasoline would be equal to the “…change in energy between the reactants and products.” Biological processes, like photosynthesis, also follow energy conservation. The green plants convert the radiant energy emitted by the Sun into useful chemical energy, such as the oxygen that we breathe. The energy transferred between any surroundings and any system can be in the form of various types of work, chemical, mechanical, radiant, electrical, or heat.
Fire begins with an idea of a spark. Then the spark is made and with the