• Question: What does the inside of a flame look like?

    Asked by crouchingmurloc to Ben, Dave, Ed, Sam, Susana on 19 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Sam Horrell

      Sam Horrell answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      If you think of a bunsen burner, the inner part of the flame is actually unburnt gas which then becomes a flame. So the inside of a flame would just look colourless and would probably have ripples in the air like you see on a hot day because of the surrounding heat.

    • Photo: David Briggs

      David Briggs answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      Yup – what Sam said.

      If the flame was about a solid fuel (like wood) rather than a gas, I’m guessing that the inside of a flame would look almost exactly like the outside of the flame.

      It’s a great question though – we should stick a tiny heat proof camera in a fire and see what we can see!

    • Photo: Susana Teixeira

      Susana Teixeira answered on 20 Jun 2013:

      Yellow-ish to me. Sam already explained it, but you can take a peek here:
      http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/content/kitchenscience/exp/-25aeab656d/

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