why did it happen if charcoal is a nonmettalic element which is not capable of changing the color of the flame?
2007-06-23 20:37:56 · 3 answers · asked by blub 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Chemistry
What is a flame? A flame does not actually exist, it has no mass. A flame is what your eyes see when they see large amounts of energy being released on that spectrum. If we look at the light spectrum, we find that higher energy the wave has, the shorter the wavelength and higher the frequency. Hence red and orange light which has longer wave lengths than blue light has less energy. So if you throw in charcoal, you are increasing the amount of energy being released in the reaction, and so the wavelengths of light released are at a higher energy, (which means a higher frequency and lower wavelength), and your eyes detect that particular frequency of light emitted as a different colors. So an orange flame which starts to release more energy will be detected as a wavelength that is higher in energy on the wavelength spectrum, such as green or blue.
2007-06-23 20:58:04 · answer #1 · answered by lilfry14 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The extra heat given out when the charcoal caught fire raised the temperature, which changed the colour of the flame.
2007-06-24 03:53:46 · answer #2 · answered by Gervald F 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Who says a non metallic element can't change the color of the flame? Obviously it did. All elements when heated will give off light of a certain color.
2007-06-24 03:51:56 · answer #3 · answered by Charles C 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋