In Chemistry today we did a lab on Combustion. We told some alcohol and bored it into a pop bottle. we then shook the alcohol around until the inside of the bottle had alcohol all inside it. THen we poured to extra alcohol out of the bottle.
After that we lit a place and placed it inside the bottle. the fire immediatley caught the alcohol and and a fire shot up form the bottle and lasted about 2 seconds. Then we had to pour the remaining alcohol onto the lab table. THen we were told to let the alchol on the lab table on fire and it worked. The fire kept burning untill all the alcohol was gone!
my question is: why was the left over alcohol sill flamable on the table??
I tihnk it has somehting to do with oxygen but i am not sure!!
thanks
2007-02-26 10:35:54 · 6 answers · asked by allyy 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Chemistry
You probably didn't burn off all of the alcohol in the bottle initially. Given enough oxygen (there may not have been enough to burn it all off) and heat, almost anything will burn to completion, giving off water and Carbon Dioxide. Why should the leftover alcohol NOT burn to begin with? Its properties do not change uness it is combusted, and therefore it was still flammable because it was still alcohol.
2007-02-26 10:44:33 · answer #1 · answered by bloggerdude2005 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yeah, alcohol is just flammable. It's just a property of the substance. The reason it st oped burning was because there was no more oxygen in the bottle to consume, and on the table you had an almost infinite source of oxygen. I bet it was a fun lab.
2007-02-26 18:42:02 · answer #2 · answered by j_loviska 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The alcohol inside the bottle used up all the oxygen in the bottle and the alcohol quit burning.
2007-02-26 18:39:32 · answer #3 · answered by rscanner 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yep. The fire went out in the bottle because it ran out of oxygen (before all the alcohol could be burned) once the fuel has some fresh oxygen. it will burn again.
2007-02-26 18:40:15 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
When the alcohol, or anything flammable mixes with air it is combustible. Fire can't occur in a vacuum because there is no oxygen to mix with.
2007-02-26 18:40:13 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
when you shook the bottle up,it created alot of fumes-thats why you had rapid combustion,but burnt too fast to burn the alcohol on the bottom!
2007-02-26 18:44:11 · answer #6 · answered by donaldhynekjr 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋