Full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pfqIcSydgE
Chemistry may tell us the recipe for combustion, but the light show is all physics.
When a flame burns cleanly (like a gas flame, blowtorch or the base of a candle), the heat excites the molecules to release light (usually pale-blue) from atomic transitions.
That’s quantum mechanics!
Now when the fuel isn’t as pure and doesn’t entirely burn (like a wood fire or coal fire or the top of a candle flame), there’s still some blue light, but you don’t see it because
it’s overpowered by light from all the particles of soot & smoke – they’re glowing red-hot!
Minute Physics provides an energetic and entertaining view of old and new problems in physics — all in a minute!
Created by Henry Reich