Flame facts for kids
- For other uses, see Flame (disambiguation).
A flame is the part of a fire that you can see. It gives off both light and heat. Flames are made when things burn in a special way, releasing energy as heat. This process is called an exothermic reaction.
The color and temperature of a flame depend on what is burning. For example, a blue or white flame is usually very hot. But a red, orange, or yellow flame is not as hot.
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What Makes Flames Different Colors?
The color of a flame depends on a few things. The most important are how hot it is and what chemicals are burning. When things burn, they can glow with different colors.
For example, when you burn a hydrocarbon (like the wax in a candle), the color depends on how much oxygen is available. More oxygen means a hotter, more complete burn. This changes the flame's color.
Yellow Flames
If a flame doesn't get much oxygen, it often looks yellow. Think of a candle flame or a campfire. This yellow color comes from tiny bits of soot (carbon) that get super hot and glow. This is like how a light bulb filament glows when it gets hot. These flames are usually not as hot as blue flames.
Blue Flames
When a flame gets plenty of oxygen, it burns more completely. This makes it much hotter. Instead of glowing soot, the blue color comes from excited gas molecules in the flame. These molecules give off light in the blue and green parts of the visible spectrum. You might see a blue flame at the bottom of a candle or from a gas stove.
Other Flame Colors
The color of a flame can also tell you how hot different parts of a fire are. The coolest parts might be red. As the temperature increases, the flame can turn orange, then yellow, and finally white. The whitest part of a flame is usually the hottest.
You can also make flames different colors by adding certain chemicals. This is how fireworks get their amazing colors! For example, adding sodium makes a flame bright yellow. Scientists use this idea in something called a "flame test." They can figure out what metals are in a substance by looking at the color of the flame it makes.
Related pages
Images for kids
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Flames of charcoal
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This graph shows the light from a blue flame. Most of the light is in the blue and green colors. This is why flames with enough oxygen look blue.
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A flame test for sodium. The bright yellow color comes from the sodium, not from soot.
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In space, flames look like a ball because there is no gravity to pull the hot air up.
See also
In Spanish: Llama (química) para niños
