Why Is Fire Hot?

Hold a marshmallow over the flame, WOOSH! It puffs! Up in flame! Touch the air above the fire, OW! Fire is HOT, but tell me HOW?

Fire needs THREE things, count with me! FUEL, and OXYGEN, and HEAT, that's three! Take away one and the flames go OUT! That's what fire is all about!

Fuel! Oxygen! Heat! Fire needs all three to compete! Fuel! Oxygen! Heat! Take one away, fire's beat!

The wood was full of stored-up power From sunlight soaked up hour by hour! A tree drank sun, year after year, And tucked the sunshine in right HERE!

When fire grabs the wood with oxygen air, The atoms bust loose everywhere! The stored-up sunshine RUSHES OUT, That's the heat you feel, no doubt!

Fuel! Oxygen! Heat! Fire needs all three to compete! Fuel! Oxygen! Heat! Take one away, fire's beat!

Try a candle in a glass jar, The flame burns bright, you watch from afar! But oxygen runs LOW LOW LOW, And the candle gives a sleepy GLOW, Then POOF!, it's out! No air, no flame! Take away one corner of the game! A blanket smothers fire the same, No oxygen, no fire to claim!

How do we know? How do we know? A long long time ago in France, just so, Antoine Lavoisier weighed a flame, And Marie-Anne weighed it just the same!

Before he burned the stuff, they weighed, After it burned, the same mass stayed! The atoms didn't go away, They joined the AIR, light as the day!

Nothing vanished, nothing made new, Fire was a TRADE, it's the proof, it's true! Wood plus air made smoke and ash, Same atoms, just a wilder dance!

Fuel! Oxygen! Heat! Fire needs all three to compete! Fuel! Oxygen! Heat! Take one away, fire's beat!

So the next time the campfire crackles bright, And you feel the heat and you see the light, The sun the tree drank long ago Is hugging your toes in a glowing GLOW!