378

Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material. Water is 2 hydrogen and 1 oxygen. Every molecule is fully oxidized. It's also a common byproduct of fire. Therefore, you can't burn it, because it's already burnt

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] brygphilomena@lemmy.world 100 points 1 year ago

Oh man... Wait until you hear about fires hot enough that if you put water on then, it breaks the water molecule and the hydrogen molecules cause an explosion.

Look up class D fires.

[-] Neato@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago

Ah so it's hot enough to electrolyze water and then when the hydrogen and oxygen gas move out of that heat zone, they're still in a hot enough area to re-oxidize into water, burning the hydrogen. Neat.

[-] wheeldawg@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago

Nothing about this makes sense. Is it reoxidizing or burning?

[-] Fordiman@programming.dev 6 points 1 year ago

Yes.

Not only will metal fires break apart the water into oxygen and hydrogen, but they will consume the oxygen, as the metal oxide is a more stable energy state than is water. So you end up with a billow of hydrogen coming off the fire that mixes with the oxygen just above (because lighter gases rise) the oxygen-depleted zone of the fire, and it combusts there.

load more comments (12 replies)
this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2023
378 points (92.4% liked)

Showerthoughts

29244 readers
1679 users here now

A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.

Rules

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS