what is the difference between flammable and inflammable?
446600
There is no difference in meaning and little or no difference in use. \nChemicals, gases or cloth materials that are flammable / inflammable catch fire and burn easily. Perhaps, in usage, cloth materials are usually described as inflammable. So we might say: 'The material from which these car seats are made is highly inflammable. And conversely, certain gases or chemicals may be thought of as flammable. So we might say: 'Aircraft fuel is highly flammable'. But there are no hard and fast patterns.\n\nAll this is somewhat strange, because usually when we add a prefix such as in- or un- or dis- to the beginning of adjectives, adverbs and verbs, we give them the opposite meaning.
278777
It is actually the fumes that burn, and yes, they are flammable.  All alcohol is flammable if it is in strong enough concentration.  Overproof rum and liqueurs bur too, or at least their fumes do.
612104
The explanations of fire in most standard reference works, not to put too fine a point on it, suck. The Encyclopaedia Britannica, for example, takes the following ineffectual stab: "rapid burning of combustible material with the evolution of heat and usually accompanied by flame." No wonder people have lost faith in science. Time to let a professional show how it's done. We'll start by reviewing the defects of the EB definition.\n\n(1) Rapid burning. OK, fire burns rapidly. Slow combustion, also known as oxidation, includes such nonfiery processes as rusting and digestion. However, to say that fire involves burning is to embark on a circular definition: What is fire? When something burns. What is burning? When something is on fire. We need to address the matter in more basic terms.\n\n(2) Combustible materials. Redundant. If a material is capable of rapid burning, by definition it's combustible. Also, "materials" is needlessly vague. One specific material, oxygen, is always involved.\n\n(3) Evolution of heat. I don't know what this is supposed to mean either.\n\n(4) Usually accompanied by flame. "Usually accompanied by" my arse. Flame is the quintessential pyrolytic phenomenon, not a mere by-product.\n\nNow for a proper definition, devised by myself: "Fire is the rapid combination of oxygen with fuel in the presence of heat, typically characterized by flame, a body of incandescent gas that contains and sustains the reaction and emits light and heat." Let's go through this bit by bit:\n\n(1) Rapid combination of oxygen with fuel in the presence of heat. Oxygen, fuel, and heat are the essential ingredients of fire. \n\n(2) Typically characterized by flame. The pup qualifier "typically" allows me to sidestep the issue of apparently nonflaming fires, like you get with burning charcoal. I suspect charcoal fires do create flame--you just can't see it due to the lack of impurities or incompletely burned fuel in the plume. (You can't see a fuel fire at an Indy or CART race either, because the cars run on clean-burning methanol.) But that's a matter we can leave for another day.\n\n(3) Body of incandescent gas. Flame defined. Most encyclopedia and dictionary definitions blow past this entirely, allowing persons such as yourself to imagine that fire is "pure energy" or similar nonsense. We say "body" because the gas has a characteristic structure and composition. We say "incandescent" because (a) it sounds scientific, (b) it means "luminous with intense heat," precisely what we are attempting to convey, and (c) if the Teeming Millions are going to learn one vocabulary word today, by God "incandescent" should be it.\n\n(4) Contains and sustains the reaction. Flame isn't just the result of fire; it is the fire. What's more, without the flame's heat the fire would go out.\n\n(5) Emits light and heat. Duh. However, we mustn't overlook the obvious.  \n\n>>>why do things that are put in it come out totally destroyed?\n\nOf course most things that go into fire aren’t totally destroyed. Most metals, glass, ceramic and so forth all emerge unscathed from fire. Even wood and paper aren’t totally destroyed, they leave an ash and charcoal residue as well as fine particles that we can see as soot and smoke.\n\nFire will ‘destroy’ anything organic that can be completely oxidised at the temperature that it burns at, but that is simply because the oxidation process converts the organic material to carbon dioxide,  and water. IOW the material isn’t destroyed it is just converted to gas and that gas blows away.\n\n>>>>>what fuel does it need from say, paper,\n\nThe paper IS the fuel the fire needs. The fire converts the paper into gases and ash. Or more accurately fire is the process of converting paper into gases and ash.
54695
Fire, as a label, is a variable. \n"n.\n1.a. A rapid, persistent chemical change that releases heat and light and is accompanied by flame, especially the exothermic oxidation of a combustible substance." (1)\n\nTo strip out the longer words, fire is something combining with oxygen rapidly enough to produce heat and to be seen as a flame.\n\nDifferent materials do this at different temperatures. The temperature where a fire starts is called a flash point.\n\n"Flash point is the lowest temperature at which a liquid can form an ignitable\nmixture in ... The fire point is usually a few degrees above the flash point. ..." (2)\n\nHere are some sample *fire points* from Wikipedia:\n"   * Silane: <70°F (21°C)\n    * White phosphorus: 93°F (34°C)\n    * Carbon disulfide: 212°F (100°C)\n    * Gasoline: 495°F (257°C)\n    * Butane: 806°F (430°C)\n    * Magnesium: 883°F (473°C)\n    * Hydrogen: 1060°F (571°C)" (3)\n\nWhere we say "ouch" is our "pain point." (4)\n\nIt's a good idea to keep fingers out of fire, but burning ourselves does not need fire. Flame is not the only factor. I have been burnt by hot roofing tar -- 500 degrees F, but not on fire.\n\nThat's probably more than you wanted to know from this question, but it's been sitting here a couple of hours so I thought I'd essay it.
1017278
Smoke is mostly buoyant carbonaceous material resulting from a combustion reaction. Smoke is matter, just as is the air that is buoying it up. All matter consists of "electric particles" in the atoms, but I am not sure exactly what you are asking. You would have to be more specific.
38135
Well, I can give you three nonflammable liquids that are mutually immiscible...\n\nwater\ncarbon tetrachloride\nmercury\n\nMost things that are immiscible with water tend to be nonhalogenated solvents and therefore flammable.
667604
Magnesium. Very dangerous around extreme heat as once it is ignited you can not put it out. The military use to cast it for their brakes for their fighter jets because magnesium is so light. However, high speed landings and hot brakes could cause ignition.
732933
Oxidising chemicals (of industrial strength) should not be stored next to oxidisable materials. These generally would be flammables such as organic solvents.\n\nCorrosive chemicals are not necessarily oxidisable.
393952
*\n      Elements of Combustion (Fire Triangle)\n    *\n      All required for a fire to occur.\n    *\n      Trend is to include “Chemical Reaction” as fourth element (Fire Tetrahedron).\nFire Properties & Chemistry\n\n    *\n      Solids do not burn. Gases burn.\n    *\n      Fuel must release gases/vapors – may require heating. (Ray Bradbury – Fahrenheit 451)\n    *\n      Fuel gases must mix /w Oxygen in proper proportion (Lean / Rich - Flammable Range).\n    *\n      Must be a source of ignition.\nFire Terms\n\n    *\n      Flash Point\n    *\n      Flammable Range (Lean/Rich)\n    *\n      LEL/UEL (LFL/UFL)\n    *\n      Ignition Temperature\n    *\n      Flammable vs. Combustible liquids\n    *\n      Bonding and Grounding\n\n\nNotes:\n1 - Flash Point – minimum temperature a fuel must be heated before it will ignite\n2 - Flammable Range (Lean/Rich) – when there is an appropriate fuel/air mixture for combustion I.e. not too lean (too little fuel), not too rich (too much fuel)\n3 - LEL/UEL (LFL/UFL) – Lower Explosive (Flammability) Limit / Upper Explosive (Flammability) Limit. These are the upper and lower limits of the Flammable Range.\n4 - Ignition Temperature – How hot the ignition source has to be – usually higher than the flash point.\n5 - Flammable vs. Combustible liquids – Flammable liquids have flash points less than 100F for OSHA rules, 140F for DOT rules, and 140F for EPA Hazardous Waste rules (EPA uses the term “ignitable” instead of “flammable”). Combustible liquids have flash points higher than those. Flammable liquids are at or above flash point at normal/ambient temperatures.\n6 - Bonding and Grounding – refers to procedures to dissipate static electricity during handling or transfer of flammable/combustible liquids. Bonding means to electrically bond 2 containers. Grounding means to electrically connecting them to ground.\nClasses of Fires\n\n\nNotes:\nClass A – most common fire. A burning house is a class A fire.\n\nClass B – at home would occur with household chemicals (paint, strippers, solvent cleaners, etc.) or fuels (gasoline, oils, etc.) or in the kitchen with grease.\nlass C – danger from live electricity. GET POWER TURNED OFF.\n\nClass D – many metals will burn magnesium, aluminum, metallic sodium, are examples. Metal burns easier if it is in powder form or chips. Putting water on a metal fire is very dangerous – it may explode.\nFire Extinguishant Materials\n\n    *\n      Water - class A only - cools /removes heat\n    *\n      Dry Chemical - class A, B, or C - interferes with chemical reaction\n    *\n      Carbon Dioxide - class A, B, or C (usually C) - removes Oxygen / smothers fire\n    *\n      Halon – (being phased out - ozone) class A, B, or C (usually C) - removes Oxygen / smothers fire\n    *\n      Metl-X - class D only - specialized dry chemical for metal fires\n    *\n      Foam – Class B, holds down vapors\n\n\nNotes:\nHalon – Is a chloro-fluorocarbon (CFC), concerns about ozone layer depletion.\n\nFoam – Usually used by professional fire fighters.
655774
exothermic is describes the release of energy\n\nendothermic describes the absorption of energy
1182331
Fire is a visible sign of combustion - an exothermic oxidation reaction. \n\nExothermic means that it releases energy.  In the case of visible fire (not all "flames" are visible) some of the energy is radiated at frequencies in the visible light waveband.\n\nBTW: color is related to temperature - "red hot" is around 500 C
761839
Complete combustion produces a much hotter flame than incomplete combustion for a given amount of methane reacting.\n\nA flame undergoing complete combustion is typically much hotter and is usually light blue (non-luminous flame), as opposed to one which is undergoing incomplete combustion which is cooler and yellower (luminous flame).
794929
Fire is an exothermic reaction because it releases energy.\nIf the temperature increases, it's because the heat is getting out of the molecule and therefore the reaction releases energy: which means it is exothermic.
324722
The air surrounding the fire is heated. \n\nHot air is less dense than cold air.\n\nLess dense air goes up; while cold air replaces the hot air and is heated,\n\nThus a convection of air current is set up continuously giving the flame the obvious figure.\n\nBy blowing air through a nozzle we can change the direction of flame.
264183
Every chemical workers are exposed to in the workplace are supposed to have a hazard label with information including flammability, health hazards and safety precautions as well as exposure limits and first aid instructions in case of accidental exposure. Since there are thousands of such chemicals, I suggest you read the labels of the chemicals you could come in contact with at your work and learn the precautions.
1001284
Dilution (with liquid)\nOxidation (heat)\nAggregation (mixing different ingredients)\nFrustration (when it comes out burnt)
30165
This really depends on what liquid versus what solid you are heating.  Some liquids are actually less heat conductive that solids.\n\nFor example,  if you have some oil and some aluminum then the aluminum is going to heat up faster than the oil would.