FIRE!!! is it alive?!?!?

Question

In my class we were asked to write a paragraph on whether or not fire is alive based on the criteria given by scientists....
does it ingest?
complex?
Reproduce?
Homeostasis?
Movement?
Growth?

Well i have them all figured out.... i think..... except for the whether it is complex or not and the homeostasis one..... can u tell me whether it is alive or not and use this criteria? and if anything explain whether or not it is complex..... PLEASE AND THANK YOU!!!!

DOes fire have cells?
Please back it up!

Answer 1

uh, fire is def. not alive.
it doesn't ingest because it has no structure, enzymes, organelles, etc.
it isn't complex (a quality usually quantified as to whether a thing can easily be reproduced and how often it can be reproduced). it is a simple reation that can be created easily and many times over.
it doesn't reproduce because again it has no structure, no information to pass on, no reproduction process, etc.
it cannot acheive homeostasis (defined as the ability to of either an open system or a closed system, especially a living organism, to regulates its internal environment so as to maintain a stable, constant condition... by wikipedia) because it has no processes to store energy, processes to store energy, or need to do either.
it does not move in the sense that you are looking for. it does not have self-produced locomotion and it travels randomly (things that are alive generally are stimulated to move somewhere).
it has no growth in the sense that you are looking for. it does not regulate the growth or fuel the growth by internal processes.
basically fire is a reaction. living things are made up of reactions, usually many of them interacting to produce a life form.

Answer 2

Is Fire Alive

Answer 3

Classic question for beginning biology classes. The reason it is asked is that the question is hard to answer because fire appears to do all of the basic things that fit the definition of life. You know fire is not alive, but why? That is where the interesting thinking comes in and you need to practice that type of thinking so that you get better at critical thinking for the harder problems you will encounter later. Have fun with this problem, it is a fun one and not very hard and there can be multiple answers, but you'll have to back them up and show your reasoning (pssst...that is what the teacher is looking for-your reasoning skills, not a "right" answer).

Answer 4

A fire is neither alive nor complex, it has no boy or structure and if it is “killed” it disappears with no remains. The by products and waste remain, but the fire itself has no corpse. Even if you kill a virus it has a corpse.

Complexity is where fire fails to meet your definition of life.

If I remove your food you will die, eventually, but you won't disappear. If you take away a fire's fuel then it will die right away. If I take away your oxygen supply you will die, but not for three minutes. You have a body with reserves; every life form has some sort of reserves or body mass. Fire is a pure chemical reaction that ceases once the conditions for it cease to exist, and it goes out immediately.

- Ingestion: It burns its fuel through a chemical process that creates heat.
- Reproduction: It gives off sparks that lets it spread beyond just its normal growth.
- Movement; it travels along the ground provided it has fuel, and it has been known to leap roads and small rivers.
- Growth; as it gets more fuel it grows and continues to get worse.
- Homeostasis; fire regulates its own temperature to keep it constant and hot, it tries to stay in a stable condition and survive.
- Complex; flame is flame; there really isn't much complexity to it. You can't dissect a flame and find different areas; there will be areas of different temperature, but no discreet organ like structures. The only “structure” to a fire is the variation in heat from cool yellow to warm red to hot blue, that isn’t a true structure they are actually phases of the fire. Any part of the flame can get hotter or colder and so change to one of those phases, as it loses fuel or oxygen it will cool and fall through those phases as well; therefore they are NOT structure since any part of the flame can enter that phase it only depends on the temperature. Cells is another area where fire fails, it has no structure, no cells, no organization, no internal design. Even a virus has a core, an outside and structure.
- Is it alive; ask any fire fighter and they will tell you that fire is almost alive and it almost thinks to outwit them. It can hide, it can even set traps for fire fighters (back draft) and it loves to hide in the walls. But, fire isn't quite alive it is only a chemical reaction; a very energetic one, but still only a chemical reaction.

According to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeostasis
"Homeostasis is that property of either an open system or a closed system, especially a living organism, which regulates its internal environment so as to maintain a stable, constant condition. Multiple dynamic equilibrium adjustments, regulation mechanisms, make homeostasis possible."

According to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life
"Life is a condition that distinguishes organisms from inorganic objects, i.e. non-life, and dead organisms, being manifested by growth through metabolism, reproduction, and the power of adaptation to environment through changes originating internally. A physical characteristic of life is that it feeds on negative entropy."

Fire fulfills these requirements; it creates heat which is negative entropy, it adapts to climb hills, grows when it can and when it runs out of oxygen it just hides.

The article continues and it includes "Response to stimuli:" as a condition of life. Here is it hard to say, it will climb a hill, or a wall and take the path of least resistance with the most fuel available, but it isn't designed to do it, it just does. A plant turns its leaves to catch the sun because it is designed to do so. A plant is organized, but fire is just chaos; pure heat. If you splash water on it the fire will retreat, but that is only because you have slowed down the chemical reaction to the point of failure. If you starve a plant of food and its carbon dioxide then it will die, but not right away; it won’t simply cease to exist; when you kill an organism unless you dissolve it in acid you have remains. When you “kill” fire you totally destroy it, heat remains behind as does the smoke, soot and ash, but those are waste or by products of the fire. The body of the fire itself doesn’t exist and when its fuel is gone it simply vanishes.

Answer 5

yes fire is made of organisums and cells that reproduds and jump....I am ding the same project in shool

Answer 6

complex- Fire is not a complex orginasim because it doesnt have cells

Reproduce- Fire does not reporduese using biogenisis thus making not alive

Hoeostasis- fire doesnt have any instinces or otherthings

Movement- movement does not determan life or not

Growth- fire does have groth and development so it would not support your case on it being Not Alive


plus a living thing cant be a gas.

Answer 7

Fire DOES NOT ingest and CANNOT reproduce. Therefore, it is NOT alive. It also cannot move except when there is more fuel available for burning

Answer 8

In the literal sense, fire does indeed do all these things. The difference between fire and you and me for instance, is that we think when we do the very same things.