is a 'flame', a solid, a liquid or a gas??

Question

everything in the universe apparently falls into one of three categories, a flame isnt a solid because u can pass ur hand through it, it isnt a liquid because it doesnt take the shape of the container u place it in, and it isnt a gas because it doesnt fill the whole area. so what is it??

Answer 1

flame is the zone where the burning of things such as gases, fine suspended particles, liquid droplets, etc occurs.

It is the combustion zone. it is not a liquid, solid nor a vapor.

my source is me. I'm a chemical engineer. worked making fine particles in a "flame" reactor for many years.


****update*****

once again, a flame is not a gas. Nor is it a plasma. look up the definition of plasma. Nor is a flame a chemical reaction. the reactions are generally the oxidizing of a material. such as methane. CH4+2O2 ---> CO2 + 2H2O. no where in that reaction is "+flame"

For that matter flames can be visible in the burning of hydrogen. methane, sodium metal, gasoline. etc. There is no chemical species called "flame"

A flame is on the other hand our label for the combustion zone. Sometimes the combustion zone gives off yellow light, sometimes blue, sometimes it colorless. So we say we have a yellow flame, blue flame, colorless flame, green flame etc.

For that matter there are many states of matter besides gas liquid and solid. see below

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_of_matter

Answer 2

A flame itself is not really "a gas." It's a small region of space where some intense chemical reactions are taking place. Oxygen (in gaseous form) is chemically combining with atoms in the fuel (which may be solid, liquid or gas). This reaction releases heat and light, which we perceive as a flame. The heat tends to drive some of the fuel into a gaseous state (if it isn't a gas already); which makes it easier for the oxygen to combine with it, which releases still more light and heat, and so on. So the region where the flame is, is the region where there is gaseous oxygen quickly combining with gaseous fuel.

Answer 3

Neither. Gases, liquids, and solids are states of matter. Fire has no mass. You were wrong when you thought that everything in the universe falls under the said categories. Energy is not considered to be matter. Examples include light, sound and gravity.

Answer 4

It's a gas.

A solid is defined as something that has a definite shape and form...which a flame doesn't.

A liquid has the same volume but no definite shape....a flame can get bigger.

It's a gas that's just been concentrated in one area.

Answer 5

Uhh....there is solids, liquids, gases, plasma which is the bulk of the visible universe, there are also lots of other states of matter (Bose-Einstein condensate, degenerate matter, strange matter, superfluids, and others). Fire is a low temperature partial-plasma, since not all of the gas is ionized. The other part I believe is a chemical reaction.

Yes, according to Wikipedia:
"A flame is an exothermic, self-sustaining, oxidizing chemical reaction producing energy and glowing hot matter, of which a very small portion is plasma."

Answer 6

It is a luminous gas.

The flame is only luminous because it is hot enough to ignite, and this means that it is in proximity to a source of heat; thus the gas that is farther away, from the heat source is too cold to ignite and become luminous.

Maybe the gas does fill the container, but only the hot part is luminous, and if allowed to dissipate in an even larger container, would become too spread out to ignite even if it was heated to the ignition point.

Answer 7

a fire flame ................ is jst the energy given out by molecules
wen a material is ignited its molecules gve out energy
tht energy apparently falls within the range of our visual perception
so we see it is light
but tht energy has also got some heat
n we feel tht heat
so a flame is sheer energy


n energy has no state
but the smoke tht comes from flames
tht is all solid particles in air
so we cn say tht smoke is most solid with traces of air

Answer 8

Gas

Answer 9

Gas. No fire without oxygen and vapours. Put your hand in the flame. Is your hand wet? Try to pick it up. Is it solid? A plasma is an ionized gas; they typically have temperatures of several thousand degrees Celsius. Its a chemical reaction, yes, but that doesn't mean it's not gas.

Answer 10

Clearly it cannot fit into any of the normal scientific definitions solid, liquid or gas, as the act of igniting a gas changes its constitution, and fire is the act of heating an existing element, which can alter its composition.
Therefore a new word must be invented to define fire.
I propose the word "fiernid". It's as good as any, and doesn't exist in the dictionary, unless we use "flame" or "fire" in the same context as solid, liquid, gas...