Fire Pup Day 2024 is on Tuesday, October 1, 2024: what EXACTLY is fire?

Tuesday, October 1, 2024 is Fire Pup Day 2024. National Fire Pup Day” Guest Blog By: Dayna Hilton, Executive ... “National Fire Pup Day” Guest

what EXACTLY is fire?

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.

(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.

(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.

(3) Evolution of heat. I don't know what this is supposed to mean either.

(4) Usually accompanied by flame. "Usually accompanied by" my arse. Flame is the quintessential pyrolytic phenomenon, not a mere by-product.

Now 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:

(1) Rapid combination of oxygen with fuel in the presence of heat. Oxygen, fuel, and heat are the essential ingredients of fire.

(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.

(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.

(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.

(5) Emits light and heat. Duh. However, we mustn't overlook the obvious.

>>>why do things that are put in it come out totally destroyed?

Of 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.

Fire 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.

>>>>>what fuel does it need from say, paper,

The 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.

sleepy pup....?

sleepy pup....?

At this age, puppies sleep a lot! About 18 hours per day..As long as your puppy is eating well, it is fine..She may also be recovering from the stresses of leaving her litter, and all the trauma in moving to a new environment..so, just be patient..You will soon wish that she would sleep more!

can my little yorkie be firing blanks? my female came into season in may and they tied approx 6

can my little yorkie be firing blanks? my female came into season in may and they tied approx 6 times but up?

I would say your poor little yorkie has fired blanks this time,it does happen..It depends when in may..jestation period is 63 days..also how young is your bitch? she could have dud eggs there are so many reasons..let me know how you get on....good luck for the future..

Holidays also on this date Tuesday, October 1, 2024...