4 ms·
Oxidation is technically a fire, albeit very slow
by downrightmike 5y ago
Oxidation is technically a fire, albeit very slow
- jjtheblunt 5y agoreally? citation?
- haneefmubarak 5y agoFire is a phenomena whereby a fuel is combined with an oxidizer to make a new product in a manner that releases heat (ie: an exothermic redox reaction). Rusting of metals fits that bill since heat is in fact released (just a super tiny amount and rather slowly), so it's _technically fire_ - although fire more commonly implies the rapid release of copious amounts of energy as part of the process.
- jjtheblunt 5y agothanks
- jaywalk 5y ago"Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire
- jjtheblunt 5y agothank you
- pdabbadabba 5y agoYou might want to include the end of that sentence: "...in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products." This confirms the, imo, common-sense position that no, oxidation is not just a slow fire. A fire is a specific type of oxidation process that involves the production of significant light and heat. In other words, it is only true that oxidation is a slow fire if one adopts a definition of fire that is significantly different from its ordinary usage.
- jaywalk 5y agoA fire releases the "heat, light and various reaction products" that it does because of the speed of oxidation. It's obvious even from the snippet I posted that slow oxidation is not actually a fire.
- pdabbadabba 5y agoYes, but aluminum oxidizes rapidly yet this oxidation process does not produce significant heat and light. So in this context, the independent heat/light requirement makes a difference!
- ivalm 5y agoOxidation of aluminum does produce heat and light (the reaction is exothermic). It’s just a very small and fast fire.
- kevin_thibedeau 5y agoIt does as a powder.
- orlp 5y agoMill aluminium under inert gas into a powder and then release the pure unoxidized powder into the air. My money is on some fireworks occurring.
- beervirus 5y agoFire is a type (fast) of oxidation. That doesn’t mean that oxidation is a type of fire.