14 DAY TRIAL // Water puts out fire. This much has always been true for us, Earth dwellers. Still, why this is the case is a mystery for plenty of people. Not as big a mystery as how Nicki Minaj can walk around without having her bottom upset her balance, but a mystery nonetheless.
Well, if you’re having trouble sleeping at night because you are utterly and completely clueless about what gives water its magical, wondrous power over fire, fear not, help is on the way. Just go on reading and be done with this riddle once and for all.
First off, here’s a crash course in how fires work
The first thing you should know is that, in order to burn, a fire requires fuel, oxygen and heat. Just think of these three elements as some seriously messed up individuals that don’t really have the guts to start trouble on they own but that go bananas whenever they get together.
Scientists define fire as the rapid oxidation of a material, i.e. the fuel, in an exothermic chemical process known as combustion. True, oxygen or another oxygen-rich compound is more often than not the oxidizer that enables a fire to start. Still, it’s important to note that non-oxygen oxidizers do exist.
Once it starts as a result of the exposure of a fuel and oxygen to heat, fire becomes a chain reaction. What this means is that the fire itself produces the heat needed to keep the combustion process going and the flames burning. On its own, a fire will continue to burn until it runs out of oxidizer or fuel.
How and why water puts out fire
Now that we’ve established that fire is an evil dictator that relies on oxygen, fuel and heat to wreak havoc – well, it’s not exactly an evil dictator when we use it to bake pizza or muffins, but let’s go with that – let us ask ourselves: how does one overthrow an evil dictator?
If you’re familiar with the 2004 cinematic production “Mean Girls,” chances are that you already know the answer to this question. In a nutshell, to overthrow a dictator, one must cut off its resources. This is where water comes in. Thus, this magical liquid leaves a fire without both heat and oxygen.
You see, when water gets thrown over a flame, its temperature almost instantly rises to its boiling point. As a result, the water switches from being a liquid to being a gas. Otherwise put, water thrown over a fire immediately starts to boil and becomes Steam.
When turning into steam, water absorbs a heck lot of heat. As a result, the chain reaction keeping a fire up and running is no longer sustainable and the fire goes out. For the sake of emphasis, let’s phrase this one other way: water puts out fire by lowering its temperature up to the point where it can no longer burn.
Another pretty amazing thing that water does when poured over a fire is that, while busy evaporating and turning into steam, it creates some sort of cloud of vapor that pushes oxygen away from the flames. Left without this other very important element, a fire has no choice but to surrender.
Why doesn’t the oxygen in water fuel fire?
If you’ve been paying attention in school, chances are that you are familiar with the fact that water molecules comprise oxygen and hydrogen. Since oxygen is one of the elements that keep a fire going, why is it that the oxygen in water does not fuel flames?
Well, the thing is that, even if the heat produced by a fire is more than enough to turn water into steam, the fact of the matter is that it is not nearly enough to get the oxygen and the hydrogen forming water molecules to file for divorce and go their separate ways. In other words, the oxygen in water is already taken.
So, there you have it. Water puts out fire by leaving it without heat and oxygen. If you’ve found this piece to your liking, join us again next week for another Freaky Friday Mystery.
