I am a student, and the chem teacher gave us this mystery to solve. What is the explanation for liquid gasoline not being able to burn?
I know that it can burn in the gaseous state.
Help!
2007-03-17 19:52:30 · 6 answers · asked by chem-mystery 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Chemistry
Burning, or fire, requires 3 things to be present at the same time: fuel, oxygen, and heat.
In a liquid like gasoline, there is no internal oxygen source. Even if you try to light the surface of the gasoline, you can't. If you have an open tank or a puddle of gasoline, there's not enough surface area to react plus the liquid is covered by a blanket of gasoline vapor. When you bring heat close to it, it will ignite, consuming the oxygen, again starving the surface of oxygen. You get similar thing on a candle. If you stare at it, you will find that the wick is not what burns most of the time. It's the candle wax that has melted and evaporated out the top of the wick. The parafin vapor is what's burning. This is why the fire on a candle floats above the wick.
It's not completely impossible to get liquid gasoline to burn. You just have to increase the surface area a lot. If you spray the liquid gasoline into a mist with an atomizer, there will be enough surface area to react. So don't. If there's oxygen present in the air, the mist will explode in a very violent manner as soon as heat or ignition source comes near it. This is what happens in the cylinders in the engine of a car. Small amounts of gasoline gets sprayed into the chamber and mixes with air. The spark plug sets it off and basically causes the mist to explode. The force of the explosion turns the cam on the car.
2007-03-17 20:21:24 · answer #1 · answered by Elisa 4 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Liquid gasoline does not burn... its the fumes that burn. When the chemical reaction evaporates, which it does very quickly, its the gaseous state that burns very readily. If you put some gas in a secure container where you can see the top at eye level, there is a distinctive gap between the liquid gas and the flame thats burning on top of it.
2007-03-17 20:01:05 · answer #2 · answered by bakfanlin 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
the liquid doesn't burn but the fumes do because the oxygen in the air allows the fumes to be combustable while the actual liquid compound doesn't contain any oxygen and the surface area of the liquid gasoline isn't large enough
2007-03-17 20:02:30 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
I know of no "liquid" that will burn. So called combustible liquids or flamable liquids are liquids that readily give off vapors that with burn when ignited so long as their vapor concentrations are above its Lower Explosive Limit (LEL) and below it Upper Explosive Limit (UEL).
2007-03-17 20:32:44 · answer #4 · answered by V-Starion 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
liquid gas burns buddy. in fact, it burns VERRRRY well.
2007-03-17 19:55:21 · answer #5 · answered by indieforcutie 3 · 0⤊ 4⤋
What ????????????????
2007-03-17 19:59:46 · answer #6 · answered by ag_iitkgp 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋