Why does natural gas burn?

Question

i nedd help for a project

Answer 1

at a high enough temperature, it will oxidize (burn)

Answer 2

Natural gas is a highly combustible odorless and colorless hydrocarbon gas largely composed of methane. It is produced in pressurized deposits located deep in the earth's crust, commonly located just above oil deposits. Natural gas is created in roughly the same manner as oil, by geologic processes that act upon organic matter over millions of years. High combustibility coupled with low emissions makes natural gas a highly valued resource. More economical than electricity, natural gas is primarily used for heating homes, cooking and running appliances such as water heaters and clothes dryers.

Natural gas played an interesting role in early civilizations. As gas seeped from deep within the earth, occurrences such as lightening strikes occasionally ignited it. To ancient peoples, fire issuing from between rocks or from shallow marshlands with no visible combustible source took on divine or supernatural significance. One famous example is the legend of the "eternal flame" of Mount Parnassus, discovered by a Greek goat herder some 3,000 years ago. The temple of the Oracle of Delphi was purportedly erected around the fire, and the priestess issued prophecies inspired by the miraculous flames.

Answer 3

Imagine a skiier at the top of a hill. All she needs is a little push and she'll fall (ski) all the way to the bottom. It takes a bunch of work (ski lift) to get the skier back up to the top of the hill. Methane is at the top of an energy hill in a little depression. It is nice and stable in its little depression but all it takes is a little push (a match, a static spark...) to lift it over the edge of the little depression and it will fall all the way to the bottom of the energy hill by combining with oxygen to form carbon dioxide and water. As it falls down the hill, the energy it gives up goes into the surroundings (heat). In an environment with 21% oxygen (air), the carbon will stay happily combined with the oxygen unless something drastic takes it back up the hill (the ski lift). The most common drastic event to move carbon back up the hill is that a solar powered natural machine (blade of grass, tree....) will suck it up add a bunch of energy to it and rip off the oxygen and spit it back while building a bigger carbon based plant. After an animal eats the plant, some of the complicated carbon based body of the plant is converted all the way back to carbon dioxide providing energy for the animal but some only falls partway down and gets burped out as methane to be collected and burned later by enterprising humans. If nothing eats the plant, it eventually dies, gets buried with billions of its buddies, partially decomposes to form a nice soup of oil and gas to be collected and burned by enterprising humans.

Answer 4

It has stored chemical energy and that energy wants to be released (according to the second law of thermodynamics). It just needs a spark to get it going.

Answer 5

Under normal conditions my natural gas don't burn - it's loud (and odorous only when I consume hot peppars).