You may be surprised why a gas stove, a candle, and a kerosene lamp are being shown here. You just focus on their flames. Do you find any difference? How do we get these flames and why are they different? In this blog, we will learn about the flame.

How a flame is formed?

To understand this phenomenon, let�s perform an activity
� Light a candle
� Hold a glass tube with a pair of tongs and introduce its one end in the dark zone of the non-flickering candle flame
� Bring a lighted match stick near the other end of the glass tube

What do you observe? We observe a flame on the other end of the glass tube. Why? During the burning, the wax near the heated wick melts quickly, the molten wax rises through the wick and is vaporized.

The vapor of wax coming out of the glass tube causes the flame. If we burn a piece of charcoal, it does not produce a flame. This means the substances which vaporize during burning, forms the flame.

Zones of Flame

Candle flame has three different zones:

� An innermost zone, which is black and the least hot.
� The middle zone is reddish-orange and yellow in color. It is a luminous zone and is moderately hot.
� A non-luminous (blue) color outer zone which is the hottest part and a zone of complete combustion.

Now let�s perform one more activity �

When the candle flame is steady, introduce a clean glass plate into the luminous zone of the flame. Hold it there for a few seconds and then remove it. A circular blackish ring is formed on the glass plate. It indicates that in the luminous zone of the flame un-burnt carbon particles are present, which get deposited on the glass plate. Now hold a thin long copper wire just inside the flame for about 30 seconds

What do you observe?

The position of the copper wire just outside the flame gets red hot. It indicates that the nonluminous zone has the highest temperature. In fact, this part of the flame is the hottest part. That is the reason why the goldsmith blows the outermost zone of a flame with a metallic blowpipe for melting gold and silver because they have a high melting point.

Read More: What Is Combustion? Conditions Necessary For Combustion