Several years ago, researchers discovered a new type of flame, the blue whirl. Now computational simulations have helped them untangle the complex structure of this clean-burning flame. Their work shows Keep reading
Tag: flame
Fractal Flame Propagation
Hydrogen is a promising alternative to carbon-based fuels, but it comes with its own special challenges. Hydrogen gas is extremely flammable, including under circumstances that would normally quench flames, as Keep reading
Understanding Wildfire
Wildfires are an ongoing challenge in the western United States, where droughts and warmer conditions have combined with a century of fire suppression to form perfect conditions for monstrous fires. It’s Keep reading
Streaming Fire
I’m just going to start this one with a blanket statement: DO NOT TRY THIS. Instead, enjoy the fact that the Internet enables us to enjoy the sight of burning gasoline in Keep reading
The Beauty of Flames
The flickering yellow and orange flames most of us are used to thinking of are rather different from the flames researchers study. In this video, the Beauty of Science team Keep reading
360 Fireball
Flames are inherently fascinating to watch. Most of the ones we see regularly, like candle flames and campfires, tend to flicker unsteadily due to their turbulence. But larger fires have Keep reading
Lighting Engines
Combustion is complicated. You’ve ideally got turbulent flow, acoustic waves, and chemistry all happening at once. With so much going on, it’s a challenge to sort out the physics that Keep reading
Flames in Freefall
Gravity is such an omnipresent force in our lives that we frequently forget how strongly it affects our daily experiences and how differently nature behaves without it. A wonderful example Keep reading
The Blue Whirl
We wrote earlier this year about the discovery of a new type of fire whirl – the blue whirl – but now the authors have published video of the blue whirl Keep reading
Flamethrowing
Humans have long been fascinated by staring into flames, and the Slow Mo Guys carry on the grand tradition here with 4K, high-speed video of a flamethrower. Like firebreathers, a Keep reading