# Can blue flame dance? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 23, 2006, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blue-flame-dance/341194 "2006-01-23T02:43:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blue-flame-dance/341194/1 "2006-01-23T02:43:13Z")
Whenever I’ve seen blue flame it’s coming out of some kind of torch or lighter fueled by gas. And it’s always nice and straight and symmetrical. I know the color is an indicator of how hot the flame is. Is there any type of substance that can burn and produce a blue flame that bends and ripples and undulates the way regular fire does? Or any color for that matter other than orange. ---
**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blue-flame-dance/341194/2 "2006-01-23T04:01:54Z")
If you take a shallow dish of high-alcohol liquor (80 proof or higher is best) and hold a match to it, you can get a nice dancing blue flame. I think that whether or not a flame “dances” is largely dependent on the air patterns near it. In particular, a larger flame is going to add more heat to its surroundings and generate more complex turbulent convection patterns in the nearby air. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blue-flame-dance/341194/3 "2006-01-23T04:41:29Z")
Elemental sulfur burns a lovely blue, and dances nicely. Anhydrous copper sulfate also colors a flame blue, whether it’s dancing or not. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blue-flame-dance/341194/4 "2006-01-23T08:36:03Z")
Thank you for the replies! I’m glad to hear it’s possible. Hmm, now where to find moonshine or anhydrous copper sulfate… the grocery store was out of both. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blue-flame-dance/341194/5 "2006-01-23T10:37:27Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#): > > Thank you for the replies! I’m glad to hear it’s possible. > > Hmm, now where to find moonshine or anhydrous copper sulfate… the grocery store was out of both. You can get some blue crystalline copper sulphate and heat it to drive off the water of crystallisation, if that helps. Methylated spirits, also. Basically anything that will burn without a forced airflow and not have unburned carbon in the flame, ‘cos that’s where your yellow flame generally comes from (tho’ sodium salts will colour a blue flame as yellow as you like, and incidentally disprove that yellow is necessarily a mixture of red and green). ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-blue-flame-dance/341194/6 "2006-01-23T14:19:14Z")
Not only dance, but sing, too! A couple of decades ago, somebody in the world of high-dollar sound systems was pushing a highly accurate tweeter that worked by passing signal current through a gas flame. It was a flop in the market. Even the most dedicated audiophiles were leery of flames in their speakers.