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Flame
By DivineOmega | March 28, 2007
Back at primary school, when I was young, innocent and generally considered cute by all my cheek grabbing aunts, we were taught science. It was the basic things really: our solarsystem, photosynthesis and some wonderful messing around with lemons and electricity.
Anyway, one day. We were discussing the solid, liquid and gas metaphor which applies to all physical matter. Everything you can see, and some things you can’t see, are one of those. In theory. Now, there was a student in our class who was being a smart-arse, and for once it wasn’t me. He asked:
“Miss Miss Miss! Quickly…. Can I go to the toilet? I need to go to the toile…..”
So, after cleaning up the resulting mess, the kid finally got around to asking his question, which was:
“What is a flame?”
I assumed, and so did the teacher that he was referring again to the solid, liquid or gas metaphor.
“I’m not sure… Find out”
So he did. And our entire primary school class became much wiser and more enriched for the knowledge. For we knew one thing that almost every other school in the country would never have answered, or possibly even thought to answer. I loved that about primary school, it was fun play-time, yet in that time I grew the foundation of all my knowledge. Thanks to all those who made it possible. 
Oh yes, and the flame thing… It’s none of the three. A flame, the visible part of fire, is a plasma.
Definition:
Flames, or at least portions of them, are often considered to be partial plasmas or a partially ionized gas, but in more general terms a flame is a region of exothermic chemical reaction of high enough temperature to emit visible light. A central region enclosed by such a reaction (but which does not necessarily participate in the reaction itself) is often also considered part of the flame.
Flame - Wikipedia
Tags: Education, Primary School, Science |