WEBVTT

00:00:04.018 --> 00:00:06.606
Uhm, excuse me.

00:00:07.081 --> 00:00:08.606
Pardon me.

00:00:08.606 --> 00:00:10.943
No, no no. Not up there.

00:00:10.943 --> 00:00:13.140
I'm down here.

00:00:13.140 --> 00:00:14.523
Yup.

00:00:14.523 --> 00:00:15.736
Hello!

00:00:15.736 --> 00:00:17.700
I am a scientist,

00:00:17.700 --> 00:00:21.430
and I've come to improve
your situation just a bit.

00:00:21.430 --> 00:00:23.368
See that fire over there?

00:00:25.318 --> 00:00:28.918
Have you ever really wondered
what the flames are, from that fire?

00:00:28.918 --> 00:00:30.738
I mean look at all of those colors.

00:00:30.738 --> 00:00:33.158
And you feel that heat. It's hot, right?

00:00:33.158 --> 00:00:35.933
Well gee, it must be torture
being around all these flames

00:00:35.933 --> 00:00:37.723
and not knowing what they are.

00:00:37.723 --> 00:00:39.599
Here, take a look at this cupcake.

00:00:39.599 --> 00:00:42.585
You see a flame
on top of this delicious looking cupcake?

00:00:42.585 --> 00:00:44.482
You do like cupcakes, don't you?

00:00:44.482 --> 00:00:46.394
Let's take a closer look, shall we?

00:00:46.394 --> 00:00:47.675
Fantastic!

00:00:48.385 --> 00:00:50.765
If we look at the flame
on top of this cupcake,

00:00:50.765 --> 00:00:52.660
we first notice a few things,

00:00:52.660 --> 00:00:54.460
like all the colors.

00:00:54.460 --> 00:00:57.642
At the bottom,
we have this blueish color.

00:00:57.642 --> 00:01:00.596
On the top,
it's more yellow, orange and reddish.

00:01:00.596 --> 00:01:02.504
Also, the flame is hot.

00:01:02.504 --> 00:01:04.937
Why is it so flaming hot?

00:01:04.937 --> 00:01:08.864
Well, to answer these questions,
you need to know something very important.

00:01:08.864 --> 00:01:12.018
You see, everything is made up
of tiny things called atoms.

00:01:12.018 --> 00:01:15.352
And these things are the building blocks
that make up everything!

00:01:15.352 --> 00:01:16.839
And they're really small.

00:01:17.609 --> 00:01:18.793
Smaller.

00:01:18.793 --> 00:01:20.325
Smaller!

00:01:20.325 --> 00:01:21.635
Even smaller!

00:01:21.635 --> 00:01:24.330
Hey, look, you can't even see them,
they're so small.

00:01:24.910 --> 00:01:26.357
Exactly!

00:01:26.587 --> 00:01:29.406
Anything you can think of
is made up of atoms.

00:01:30.484 --> 00:01:33.482
Yup, this air conditioner
is made up of atoms.

00:01:34.242 --> 00:01:36.722
This delicious popsicle
is made up of atoms.

00:01:36.722 --> 00:01:39.051
This ice water is made up of atoms.

00:01:39.051 --> 00:01:42.804
Everything is made up
of billions and billions of atoms.

00:01:42.804 --> 00:01:46.665
Now, this candle and flame are made up
of three kinds of atoms:

00:01:46.665 --> 00:01:49.862
carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.

00:01:49.862 --> 00:01:52.060
The carbon
and the hydrogen are locked together

00:01:52.060 --> 00:01:54.206
to form the solid wax and wick.

00:01:54.206 --> 00:01:57.311
The oxygen is a gas all around us.

00:01:57.831 --> 00:02:01.184
Normally,
the oxygen doesn't do much to the candle

00:02:01.184 --> 00:02:05.124
It just bounces off of the surface,
not doing any real damage.

00:02:05.124 --> 00:02:08.738
But when we add heat,
the oxygen atoms go bananas!

00:02:08.738 --> 00:02:10.924
And they shake the wax, like crazy!

00:02:10.924 --> 00:02:15.394
Until finally,
with enough force, they snap apart.

00:02:15.394 --> 00:02:17.635
They leave the candle as a gas,

00:02:17.635 --> 00:02:19.409
where they mix with the oxygen.

00:02:19.409 --> 00:02:21.343
Uh-oh, I smell trouble.

00:02:21.343 --> 00:02:25.620
Well, the fancy science word
for all of this is

00:02:25.620 --> 00:02:27.062
pyrolysis.

00:02:27.062 --> 00:02:29.781
It is the first thing
that needs to happen to get a flame.

00:02:29.781 --> 00:02:32.234
It's when the fuel turns to a gas.

00:02:32.990 --> 00:02:36.008
Now, let's see what happens
when these hot gasses combine.

00:02:36.008 --> 00:02:38.914
(Announcer) Ladies and gentlemen,
in this corner,

00:02:38.914 --> 00:02:41.473
he was once a solid, now he's a gas!

00:02:41.473 --> 00:02:43.583
He's the fuel from the West!

00:02:43.583 --> 00:02:48.023
And in this corner,
not one, but two groups of oxygen

00:02:48.023 --> 00:02:49.079
Ready?

00:02:49.079 --> 00:02:50.693
React!

00:02:51.323 --> 00:02:55.266
Any time certain atoms get hit
hard enough,

00:02:55.266 --> 00:02:57.329
they spit out blue light.

00:02:58.022 --> 00:03:00.485
And because there are lots of atoms
getting hit hard

00:03:00.485 --> 00:03:02.746
and lots of atoms spitting out blue light,

00:03:02.746 --> 00:03:05.941
we get a blue flame.

00:03:05.941 --> 00:03:08.637
Here comes another science word. Ready?

00:03:08.637 --> 00:03:10.406
Chemiluminescence.

00:03:10.406 --> 00:03:12.691
I know, it's a big one. One more time.

00:03:12.691 --> 00:03:14.154
Chemiluminescence.

00:03:14.154 --> 00:03:16.406
It's when atoms shine light
when they rearrange.

00:03:16.406 --> 00:03:18.689
It's why flames are blue.

00:03:19.259 --> 00:03:21.513
Now, the blue light is not hot.

00:03:21.513 --> 00:03:22.881
Wait!

00:03:22.881 --> 00:03:26.046
But the blue flame is really hot!

00:03:26.046 --> 00:03:28.189
So if the blue light is not the hot part,

00:03:28.189 --> 00:03:30.569
then what does make a flame so hot?

00:03:30.569 --> 00:03:33.434
Well, remember our fuel atoms,

00:03:33.434 --> 00:03:34.904
and our oxygen atoms?

00:03:34.904 --> 00:03:36.681
They rearranged
to make new stuff,

00:03:36.681 --> 00:03:38.934
like water and carbon dioxide.

00:03:38.934 --> 00:03:41.567
And as they rearrange,
they snap together.

00:03:41.567 --> 00:03:42.900
And with each...

00:03:42.900 --> 00:03:43.786
(snapping sound)

00:03:43.786 --> 00:03:46.422
the new thing shakes like crazy!

00:03:46.422 --> 00:03:47.963
So when the rearranging is done,

00:03:47.963 --> 00:03:49.525
we have lots of new stuff,

00:03:49.525 --> 00:03:51.737
all shaking really fast!

00:03:51.737 --> 00:03:54.537
If we put something close
to those raging atoms,

00:03:54.537 --> 00:03:56.821
those atoms begin to shake
like crazy, too,

00:03:56.821 --> 00:03:59.388
like the atoms in our fingers,
and that's heat.

00:04:00.248 --> 00:04:03.188
This is called oxidation.

00:04:03.188 --> 00:04:07.042
It's when the oxygen atoms combine
with other atoms to make new stuff.

00:04:07.042 --> 00:04:09.547
It's why flames are so hot.

00:04:09.547 --> 00:04:10.508
All right then,

00:04:10.508 --> 00:04:13.192
why are most flames
yellow, orange and red?

00:04:13.192 --> 00:04:15.419
Well, remember our first reaction?

00:04:15.419 --> 00:04:18.885
We had one group of fuel atoms
and two groups of oxygen.

00:04:18.885 --> 00:04:20.948
They made a flame that was very hot

00:04:20.948 --> 00:04:22.559
and only blue.

00:04:22.559 --> 00:04:25.317
But watch what happens
if there's not enough oxygen

00:04:25.317 --> 00:04:26.911
and we take some away.

00:04:26.911 --> 00:04:28.487
(Announcer) Ladies and gentlemen,

00:04:28.487 --> 00:04:31.084
what happens
when there's not enough oxygen?

00:04:32.594 --> 00:04:33.307
(audience gasp)

00:04:33.307 --> 00:04:36.930
What's this?
A single carbon atom left all alone?

00:04:36.930 --> 00:04:40.527
It's okay, because all of his left-over
carbon friends come to join him,

00:04:40.527 --> 00:04:43.856
and they form large, black particles
we call soot.

00:04:43.856 --> 00:04:45.225
Okay, they're not so large.

00:04:45.225 --> 00:04:47.105
They're so small
we can't even see them.

00:04:47.105 --> 00:04:50.162
But to a single atom,
they are enormous!

00:04:50.162 --> 00:04:52.322
(Announcer) Enormous!

00:04:52.322 --> 00:04:53.658
I know what you're thinking.

00:04:53.658 --> 00:04:56.903
How do black particles make yellow flames?

00:04:56.903 --> 00:04:58.126
Well, let me show you.

00:04:58.126 --> 00:05:00.113
But first,
I need something big and black,

00:05:00.113 --> 00:05:01.876
like this pitch fork, for example.

00:05:01.876 --> 00:05:03.371
Excuse me, Sir, Your Evilness,

00:05:03.371 --> 00:05:06.442
could you please place your pitch fork
in those scorching flames?

00:05:06.442 --> 00:05:07.403
Thank you.

00:05:07.403 --> 00:05:10.686
Big black objects are like sponges
that soak up heat!

00:05:10.686 --> 00:05:12.409
They have to get rid of this energy,

00:05:12.409 --> 00:05:14.565
so they spit it out by glowing!

00:05:14.565 --> 00:05:18.247
The hotter they get,
the more brightly they glow!

00:05:18.247 --> 00:05:20.677
Now, the same thing happens
with our soot particles.

00:05:20.677 --> 00:05:23.264
They drink in heat
from all of those hot atoms.

00:05:23.264 --> 00:05:24.946
And they glow brighter
and brighter,

00:05:24.946 --> 00:05:27.303
until they look like this!

00:05:27.303 --> 00:05:30.457
And because there are millions
and millions of soot particles,

00:05:30.457 --> 00:05:32.077
all glowing hot,

00:05:32.077 --> 00:05:33.920
we get this yellow flame.

00:05:33.920 --> 00:05:36.293
This is called incandescence.

00:05:36.293 --> 00:05:38.671
It's when the soot particles glow
because they're hot.

00:05:38.671 --> 00:05:41.041
It's the reason why flames are yellow.

00:05:41.041 --> 00:05:43.353
Well, that's it. That's what flames are.

00:05:43.353 --> 00:05:45.938
I mean, who knew
cupcakes could be so much fun?

00:05:45.938 --> 00:05:49.931
Remember, first, the fuel loses mass
and turns into a gas.

00:05:49.931 --> 00:05:52.803
Before the next change is through,
atoms shine blue.

00:05:52.803 --> 00:05:55.548
When the process is complete,
it gives off heat.

00:05:55.548 --> 00:05:58.850
Extra carbon will grow red,
orange and yellow.

00:05:58.850 --> 00:06:00.687
Hey, those are just like the lyrics

00:06:00.687 --> 00:06:03.794
from that really awesome song
about flames.

00:06:03.794 --> 00:06:05.822
You know, the one that goes:

00:06:05.822 --> 00:06:08.054
♪ The fuel loses mass. ♪

00:06:08.054 --> 00:06:09.419
♪ It turns to gas. ♪

00:06:09.419 --> 00:06:11.792
♪ Before the next change is through, ♪

00:06:11.792 --> 00:06:13.720
♪ some atoms shine blue. ♪

00:06:13.720 --> 00:06:15.666
♪ When the process is complete, ♪

00:06:15.666 --> 00:06:17.780
♪ it gives off heat. ♪

00:06:17.780 --> 00:06:20.037
♪ Extra carbon will glow ♪

00:06:20.037 --> 00:06:21.948
♪ red, orange, yellow. ♪

00:06:21.948 --> 00:06:23.542
♪ The fuel loses mass. ♪

00:06:23.542 --> 00:06:25.227
♪ It turns to a gas. ♪

00:06:25.227 --> 00:06:27.996
♪ Before the next change is through, ♪

00:06:27.996 --> 00:06:29.679
♪ some atoms turn blue. ♪

00:06:29.679 --> 00:06:31.688
♪ When the process is complete, ♪

00:06:31.688 --> 00:06:33.510
♪ it gives off heat. ♪

00:06:33.510 --> 00:06:35.909
♪ Extra carbon will glow ♪

00:06:35.909 --> 00:06:37.785
♪ red, orange, yellow. ♪

00:06:37.785 --> 00:06:39.964
(chorus repeats)

00:06:39.964 --> 00:06:43.138
(vocal backing: Pyrolysis)

00:06:43.138 --> 00:06:46.240
(Chemiluminescence)

00:06:47.170 --> 00:06:49.606
(Oxidation)

00:06:50.596 --> 00:06:53.795
(Incandescence)

00:06:54.795 --> 00:07:15.151
(repeat)

00:07:15.151 --> 00:07:19.067
(song finishes)