Learn About Combustion

You've probably seen lots of chemical reactions before - some pretty spectacular ones in your science lessons perhaps, and some even at home which you may not have realised are chemical reactions.

Have you ever seen something on fire? Well that's a chemical reaction. There's a special name for the type of reaction it is - combustion.

Combustion is burning. There are three things needed for a combustion reaction (for something to catch fire and remain burning):

An example of a fuel is wood, coal, petrol or natural gas. A heat source could be a lit match or a spark. And oxygen often is supplied from the air around us.

If you haven't got one of the three - fuel, heat or oxygen - the fire will go out or not even start at all.  

We can use fire extinguishers to put out fires. Water extinguishers remove heat. Powder and carbon dioxide extinguishers remove the oxygen. Foam extinguishers can remove both the heat and the oxygen - and hence, the fire goes out!

There's a word equation to show what happens during a combustion reaction:

Fuel + Oxygen → Carbon dioxide + water + energy

Happy to try some questions on combustion now?