Chemicals/Fire

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Expert: - 1/28/2006


Question
What comes first the smoke or the fire?

Answer
It depends on what you are burning, how you do it, and your definitions of fire and smoke.  You can not generalize.  You really need to talk about charring and combustion.

If you use the following definition and say fire=combustion,

smoke - a hot vapor containing fine particles of carbon being produced by combustion

then fire comes first.  You can also talk about the definitions of flame.

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Chemistry (non-biochemistry), environmental science, occupational health and safety, environmental regulation and management, environmental engineering, and wastewater engineering. I'm the Director of Environmental, Health, and Safety and the Director of Research at the Institute of Textile Technology.

Experience

Chemistry (non-biochemistry), environmental science, occupational health and safety, environmental regulation and management, environmental engineering, and wastewater engineering. I'm the Director of Environmental, Health, and Safety and the Director of Research at the Institute of Textile Technology.

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