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Can it truly be called a stable state? Fire is stable while it has fuel but isn't it really just a transition point for solid to gas?

Qmechanic
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Anoop Alex
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1 Answers1

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The question as you have posed it in the title has been asked before - as noted above in the comments.

But not addressed is your implied question of wheter a fire is a plasma or not. Typically there are two types of plasma - one is where the temperature is so hot (~10,000 K or more) that a significant fraction of the atoms/molecules present are ionized. The other is where a significant ionization fraction is caused by passing an electric current through a gas at low temerpatures (typically room temp to 500 K or a bit more). The first type can be a 'stable state', but the second type is never a 'stable state'.

Fire can generally conduct electricity, but it may just be an ionized gas rather than a plasma. Finally if it is consuming fuel then it is not a 'stable state' or at least certainly not at equilibrium.

tom
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