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Very cool. I've always wondered what the shape of a flame is and how one could use physics to derive it. anyone have any leads for this?
by efavdb 1y ago
Very cool. I've always wondered what the shape of a flame is and how one could use physics to derive it. anyone have any leads for this?
- nh23423fefe 1y agoseems like a very complicated simulation problem. i'd be surprised if you could derive from first principles. you need to model the atmosphere as environment, heat flow, wicking action, chemical reactions, fluid dynamics under gravity. Then model human perception to turn the spectral radiance into a perceived shape.
- IAmBroom 1y agoOr take a candle onto the ISS. Which they did.
- cpldcpu 1y agoThe third reference from the article provides some pointers (see also references there). https://arxiv.org/pdf/1803.10400 https://arxiv.org/pdf/1803.10400 But its not trivial at all, its a complex fluid dynamics problem. I stumbled upon all the "coupled candle oscillators" literature when I was looking for a shortcut to a semi-physical candle model. But there is no easy way out...
- efavdb 1y agoThank you! And appreciate the TLDR.
- kridsdale1 1y agoLook up some YouTube videos of candles or lighters used in zero-gravity. It’s a sphere. The candle shape on earth is caused by the weight of the air.
- waiquoo 1y agoFaraday did a whole series of lectures about a single candle, essentially covering a surprising amount of physics and chemistry. Super simple and fascinating: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14474 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14474