the.com/combustion
the controlled disaster that powered every revolution and now refuses to leave quietly
means The chemical process in which a substance reacts rapidly with oxygen, releasing heat and light — in short, burning.
from From Latin 'combustio,' from 'comburere' — to burn up — built from 'com-' (an intensifier here) plus 'urere,' to burn. The 'b' in the middle is a bit of an interloper, likely smuggled in by confusion with 'bustum,' a funeral pyre or tomb, so the word carries a faint whiff of the crematory. It entered English in the late medieval period by way of Old French, long before anyone understood that the fire was really oxygen having a violent reunion with fuel.
- needs three
- Fuel, oxygen, heat: remove one, it dies
- speed range
- From slow rust to detonation faster than sound
- flame color
- Reveals temperature: blue burns hotter than yellow
- breathing fire
- Your cells combust glucose to keep you alive
- oxygen origin
- Named by Lavoisier, who lost his head in revolution
apollo 1 fire — spacecraft cabin fire killed astronauts gus grissom, ed white, and roger chaffee on january 27, 1967
hindenburg disaster — hydrogen-filled airship burst into flames at lakehurst, new jersey on may 6, 1937, killing 35 people
coal mine explosions fentai — fentai coal mine in china exploded on june 9, 2018, killing 21 miners from methane combustion