seeing cecil’s new column title reminded me of a couple of questions that have been nagging me about fire. man, am i going to love this board…
why can you blow out a match? if oxygen from air is what’s combusting, aren’t u just feeding the fire more fuel?
ok, the other day, i’m at a restaurant that has candles and music playing. the flames jumped with certain parts of the music- maybe the bass? why would it do this and what singer would get the highest jumps?
Once the low-combustion-temperature elements (phosphorous, etc.) on the head of the match have been used up, the heat of the flame is necessary to keep the match burning. When you blow the flame away from the match, the head becomes too cool to sustain combustion.
As for question #2, loud sounds are transmitted through the air via vibrating molecules banging into each other. A loud enough sound can certainly cause the air around a flame to move suddenly.
Pretty much what Nametag said except for something more. Matchsticks (the wood part) are carborized that is they are dipped in a strong solution of sodium carbonate. The carborized matchsticks give off CO2, so when you blow out a matchstick, it does’nt smolder the way an ordinary piece of wood do.
Bass means low frequency higher energy wave. Sound waves travel as longitudinal (that is compression and rarefaction zones) in air, hence the effect.