Skip to main content

     Any idea what happens to flame in micro Gravity?

We all have seen a candle burn bright. But have we ever put to thought why the flame burns in that particular way? The answer is something we all have felt since our birth. It is what keeps us glued to this earth. It has it's effect on anything and everything on this earth, from a tiny fish in the deepest part of ocean to the aircraft flying above us. Yes, its Earth's Gravity.
Gravity has a hidden role in the composition and formation of a flame. First let us look into how a flame burns. The flame heats the air around it and makes it less dense, the gravity pulls down the comparatively cooler and oxygen-rich air thereby pushing the hot air upwards. This process makes the flame shoot up.
In space, combustion is impossible as no oxygen is present. Inside a spacecraft, the air mixture is same as that on earth, but the gravity is millions of times weaker. In micro-gravity, the upward lift is not present and oxygen is drawn into the flame using a different phenomena. As the flame is fed by slow diffusion, effectively the entire surface of the flame is the "bottom", reacting with the fresh air close to the fuel. Thus the flame is spherical like a fireball. As CO2 cannot leave the combustion area, as easily as on earth, the outward diffusion limits the inward diffusion of oxygen. When a candle burns, it is being consumed molecule by molecule. But in micro-gravity carbon strings do not get burned and thus the flame is blue, cooler and much dimmer. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Evolution of Aircrafts

Since that fateful day in December of 1903, airplane design has changed dramatically. The Wright Brothers built a biplane with two propellers that were chain-driven by a gasoline motor. Our dependence on air travel over the years has forced airplane design to catch up with the times. On December 17, 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright made four brief flights at Kitty Hawk with their first powered aircraft. The Wright brothers had invented the first successful airplane. The Wrights used this stopwatch to time the Kitty Hawk flights. Aircrafts have evolved so much from the initial days. From 2 seater to the latest air bus type, they have come a long way.  The history of aviation extends for more than two thousand years, from the earliest forms of aviation such as kites and attempts at tower jumping to supersonic and hyper-sonic flight by powered, heavier-than-air jets. Kite flying in China dates back to several hundred years BC and slowly spread around the world. Sir George Cayley...

How Electric Current is formed?

How Electric Current is formed? Have you ever wondered how Electric Current is formed? Generally, the flow from one point to another through a medium is called a current. When an electric charge moves from one point to another inside a conductor or a semiconductor, it is actually conducting electric current. Electric charge carriers are micro particles that conduct the electricity. They can be protons, electrons, holes or ions depending on their availability in the conducting material.  Normally electrons and holes are responsible for conducting electricity. This process occurs when a Voltage or a Potential Difference is applied at the two ends of a conductor or a semiconductor. Thus Electric Current is formed when a Voltage of Potential Difference is applied at the two ends of a conductor or semiconductor, i.e. when a closed circuit is formed.