The discovery of fire has been estimated at approximately 1.7 million years ago, and can be viewed as one of the most important discoveries of mankind. However, to the humans living on earth at that time, they were highly unaware of the true scientific reasons and causes for the bright and hot flames. With scientific research, an individual is capable of breaking down the science behind fire and truly understand what is happening to an object or substance as it is burning. In order to produce a fire, there must be certain factors that take place enabling the combustion process to occur, and without them, combustion is not possible. Fires can also be categorized into four different categories based off of the fuel that the fire is burning up.
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The first type of fire is classified as a Type A fire, and it is a fire that uses normal combustible material for fuel such as wood or other organic based compounds. This type of fire is the most common and the fire occurs when the material has been heated to their ignition temperature which allows for combustion to take place. The ignition temperature of a substance is the lowest possible temperature of that substance where it will spontaneously ignite with no spark. These types of fires will be self-perpetuating, or having the ability to burn on its own, as long as there is a source of heat, oxygen, fuel, and a chain reaction. An equation, called a combustion reaction equation, can be created to explain the change that takes place during the process. A combustion reaction equation starts with the compounds reacting with oxygen on the left side, and they create heat energy and another product on the right side. Type A fires tend to produce embers, a burning or glowing piece of coal that is in a dying fire, or ash. Ash is the combination of all the unburnable materials that do not get broken down during the combustion …show more content…
The three ways that fires are able to spread are through conduction, convection, and radiation. Conduction is the form of spreading when the fire has direct contact with another object, and then that object catches on fire continuing the spread of the chemical reaction. Conduction is the reason for forest fires as all the aspects of the forest spread the fire through direct contact. Approximately 100,000 forest fires each year clear out about 5 million acres of forest a year in the U.S. These forest fires are also capable of moving at speeds of up to 14 mph. Convection is another form of how fires spread, and this process occurs as hot gasses or liquids spread to cooler areas. For example, if there was a fire started inside of a room, the hot gasses would rise and then hit the ceiling. The ceiling would force the fumes outward, and then downward spreading the incredible heat from the fire below throughout the entire room setting it ablaze. The third and final way that a fire spread is through a process known as radiation. Radiation is heat traveling by way of electromagnetic waves. As a substance burns, it radiates heat in all directions raising the temperature of everything around it. If the flames are hot enough, they have the potential to lighting other objects on fire by raising that object to its ignition
The first type of fire is classified as a Type A fire, and it is a fire that uses normal combustible material for fuel such as wood or other organic based compounds. This type of fire is the most common and the fire occurs when the material has been heated to their ignition temperature which allows for combustion to take place. The ignition temperature of a substance is the lowest possible temperature of that substance where it will spontaneously ignite with no spark. These types of fires will be self-perpetuating, or having the ability to burn on its own, as long as there is a source of heat, oxygen, fuel, and a chain reaction. An equation, called a combustion reaction equation, can be created to explain the change that takes place during the process. A combustion reaction equation starts with the compounds reacting with oxygen on the left side, and they create heat energy and another product on the right side. Type A fires tend to produce embers, a burning or glowing piece of coal that is in a dying fire, or ash. Ash is the combination of all the unburnable materials that do not get broken down during the combustion …show more content…
The three ways that fires are able to spread are through conduction, convection, and radiation. Conduction is the form of spreading when the fire has direct contact with another object, and then that object catches on fire continuing the spread of the chemical reaction. Conduction is the reason for forest fires as all the aspects of the forest spread the fire through direct contact. Approximately 100,000 forest fires each year clear out about 5 million acres of forest a year in the U.S. These forest fires are also capable of moving at speeds of up to 14 mph. Convection is another form of how fires spread, and this process occurs as hot gasses or liquids spread to cooler areas. For example, if there was a fire started inside of a room, the hot gasses would rise and then hit the ceiling. The ceiling would force the fumes outward, and then downward spreading the incredible heat from the fire below throughout the entire room setting it ablaze. The third and final way that a fire spread is through a process known as radiation. Radiation is heat traveling by way of electromagnetic waves. As a substance burns, it radiates heat in all directions raising the temperature of everything around it. If the flames are hot enough, they have the potential to lighting other objects on fire by raising that object to its ignition