this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2025
408 points (98.3% liked)
memes
17927 readers
3966 users here now
Community rules
1. Be civil
No trolling, bigotry or other insulting / annoying behaviour
2. No politics
This is non-politics community. For political memes please go to !politicalmemes@lemmy.world
3. No recent reposts
Check for reposts when posting a meme, you can only repost after 1 month
4. No bots
No bots without the express approval of the mods or the admins
5. No Spam/Ads/AI Slop
No advertisements or spam. This is an instance rule and the only way to live. We also consider AI slop to be spam in this community and is subject to removal.
A collection of some classic Lemmy memes for your enjoyment
Sister communities
- !tenforward@lemmy.world : Star Trek memes, chat and shitposts
- !lemmyshitpost@lemmy.world : Lemmy Shitposts, anything and everything goes.
- !linuxmemes@lemmy.world : Linux themed memes
- !comicstrips@lemmy.world : for those who love comic stories.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
What about chemicals that create their own oxygen source when burning?
The reaction propagation is always from the ignition source to the media, so the 'fire' is always on the outside. Even if the inside is in the process of quickly becoming the outside.
No, I get that. Not why I asked the question.
If you have a compound like potassium super oxide chatch light in a vacuum, does it still burn because it has it's own oxidizer?
By itself in a vacuum, no. Under gas pressure, when contacted by water it will react from the point of contact until all reactants are complete. I wouldn't consider the reaction to be 'fire' though. At least not personally. Drop some hydrocarbons in the mix and you'll get a fire as the oxygen produced gets something to react with.
Speaking from experience with Potassium Superoxide, once it goes up the flames are impressive in atmosphere.
I would absolutely expect that to be true. Generate enough oxygen, and damn near everything suddenly wants to be a gas that's paired with it.
obligatory at this point:
https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/things-i-won-t-work-dioxygen-difluoride
Nah, foof doesn't burn, it's destroys everything around it with hatred for the universe that made it exist.
Yes, that is how rockets get to space, for example. Earth's atmo is ~21% Oxygen. So that is giving flames a boost. Careful not conflate "burn" with the presence of flames. In a vacuum, the flame could only exist briefly because there isnt the available Oxygen from the air. The reaction will (or might?) still happen, but without the oxygen to produce a flame.
BTW, this has been studied in microgravity aboard the ISS.
Excellent point. I edited my comment to say that air is not always on top of fire:-D.