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Currently Playing: Why some flames are blue and others are red?

Full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pfqIcSydgE Chemistry may tell us the recipe for combustion, but the light show is all physics. When a flame burns cleanly (like a gas flame, blowtorch or the base of a candle), the heat excites the molecules to release light (usually pale-blue) from atomic transitions. That's quantum mechanics! Now when the fuel isn't as pure and doesn't entirely burn (like a wood fire or coal fire or the top of a candle flame), there's still some blue light, but you don't see it because it's overpowered by light from all the particles of soot & smoke - they're glowing red-hot! Minute Physics provides an energetic and entertaining view of old and new problems in physics -- all in a minute! Created by Henry Reich