December 3/11

We were renovating all day today, and one of the main things we did was burn all of the old cupboards, vanities etc that we took out (with a burn permit of course).  Our friends Norm and Erna watched and added to the fire for hours today (thank you both!!).  This picture is after many hours of burning...

Embers are the glowing, hot coals made of greatly heated wood, coal, or other carbon-based material that remain after, or sometimes precede a fire. Embers can glow very hot, sometimes as hot as the fire which created them. An ember is usually formed when a fire has only partially burnt a piece of fuel, and there is still usable chemical energy in that piece of fuel. Often this happens because the usable chemical energy is so deep into the center that air (chemically O2) does not reach it, therefore not causing combustion (carbon-based fuel + O2 → CO2 + H2O + C + other chemicals involved). The reason that it continues to stay hot and does not lose its thermal energy quickly is because combustion is still happening at a miniature scale. The small yellow, orange and red lights often seen among the embers are actually combustion. There just is not enough combustion happening at one time to create a flame. By the time embers are completely 'burned through', almost all of it is pure carbon will have loose physical bonds, which is why they crumble with the slightest touch.
Info courtesy of Wikipedia.

Isn't science amazing???

Thanks also to Ash & Braden, and Tyler & Dayna for all your help today!

Fire Embers