What is the physical state of "Fire" ?

Answer 1

Fires and burning have often been used in religious rites and symbolism. One reason may be that the smoke of the fire disperses upwards, into what may be considered into the heavens, considered by many religions to be the home of their supernatural deities.

Fire is one of the four classical elements, as well as one of the five Chinese elements. In Hinduism fire is one of five sacred elements of which all living creatures are comprised and is considered an eternal witness essential to sacred religious ceremonies.

Fire is a symbol of Ahura Mazda, or God, of the Zoroastrian religion. A Zoroastrian church is known as a Fire Temple. Fire is also an important part of Calcination, the fire operation in the art of alchemy.

In Roman mythology, Vulcan is the god of fire. The analogue in Greek mythology is Hephaestus. In Greek mythology, Prometheus is the Titan chiefly honored for stealing fire from the gods in the stalk of a fennel plant and giving it to mortals for their use.

In Judaism fire also has great significance. Candles are lit to usher in holidays and to separate Shabbat from the rest of the week, as well as to remember the dead. Another important fire symbol is the Eternal Flame, which was a fire kept in the First and Second Temples and will always be kept burning.

In Christianity, fire is a symbol of the Holy Ghost and is often used in descriptions of Hell. Additionally, a fire is used in the Roman Catholic Mass during the Easter Vigil.

Answer 2

Fire is a mixture of a lot of things, so "physical state" doesn't really apply. Fire consists of solid particles being burned, gas particles that were already burned, and the energy of converting between the two.

Edit: Never mind. The people who said "plasma" are right. Link below.

Answer 3

Actually fire is not exactly matter as liquid, solid or gaseous. It is a manifestation of rapidly expanding and heating gases (meaning the air around the tip of the candle for ex.. It is like hot metal turning red, though in this case it is air heated.

the flame itself is actually light emitted by the heated molecules of air. The molecules absorb energy by reacting with others (spontaneous reactions) or by contact with hotter molecules (the air one inch above the candle is hot and "in the flame").

Some include Fire in the fourth state of matter, plasma: it is super-heated matter when all the atoms lose their electrons because of the high levels of energy. When a molecule of whatever becomes plasma, it emits for a short period of time light, like a flame, then cools down by heating the surrounding molecules.

Answer 4

Fire is energy, not matter. Therefore, it does not have a state.

Certain chemical reactions produce electromagnetic energy. Out of the electromagnetic spectrum, humans can percieve heat and light without special equipment. When these frequencies are produced in large quantities, we percieve it as fire. The color of the flame depends on the frequency of the visible light that's emitted by the burning substance.

Depending on the heat of the fire, plasma can be formed, but that's not really what you're seeing when you look at a lit match.

Answer 5

Fire is not matter, as with matter you can assign a state such as solid, liquid, gas or plasma. Fire is a process or chemical reaction, involving heat, some flammable material or fuel and oxygen. Those three factors form the "fire triangle". What makes fire seem like a "thing" is the fourth factor, the continuing chemical reaction that perpetuates it and gives it "life". This fourth factor, when coupled with the "fire triangle", is called the "fire tetrahedron".

Answer 6

Plasma, not quite. Fire is just a combo of thermal and light energy being released from a reaction, usually the reduction of complex carbon molecules, such as those in wood, to CO2 and H2O. Big molecules have lots of energy stored in them, energy that is released when the bonds in them are broken or rearranged. It's possible to think of fire as plasma, but I'm not sure it is the best model.

Answer 7

I'm not sure if regular fire is hot enough to be Plasma, but to correct another posters previous answer, there is also yet another not well known state called a BEC (Bose-Einstein Condensate). This state occurs when things are very cold (close to absolute zero) and makes matter behave like a wave.

Answer 8

Fire has no physical state as it a oxidation process.

Answer 9

Fire is actually a plasma, a little known state of matter. There are four: solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. Another plasma is lightning.

Answer 10

I believe it is classified as plasma, like the sun. However, most of what you see is just energy, not matter, so it doesn't really have a physical state.