What Causes The Change In The Burning Match Or Splint

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When I swipe the matchstick how does information technology make fire? Cheers. – Laura, aged 5, Brisbane.

I'm glad you asked this, Laura. I have been interested in the science of fire and fireworks for a long time, and tin can tell you at that place is a lot happening in the very short time it takes to light a match.

Merely kickoff I want to give an important alert: matches are dangerous and they shouldn't be used without supervision. You can hurt yourself, your friends and family, destroy your home, or damage the surroundings.

Now, let's get dorsum to the science.

When you swipe a friction match, friction and the reaction of red phosphorus on the box to highly reactive white phosphorus provides the starting heat. Animation, editing and voiceover by Chynthia Wijaya. Boosted analogy past Wes Mountain.

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Friction

To learn how the lucifer can catch burn, nosotros first demand to empathize something chosen "friction". Friction is when you rub two things together and it creates heat or warmth. Have you lot ever rubbed your hands together on a cold morn to warm them upward? That's friction.

(For the adults reading, friction converts kinetic energy into thermal energy.)

Friction is important for the outset function of lighting a friction match. Y'all rub the match head against the red strip on the side of the matchbox.

This strip on the box contains a bit of powdered glass to make information technology actress rough. Scratching the crude match caput against the rough strip leads to friction. That creates simply plenty heat to offset a series of chemical reactions.

Chemical reactions

You probably know well-nigh chemical reactions. That's when one chemical interacts with another chemical, and a change occurs. Maybe you've added vinegar to bicarb soda to create a mini volcano. That'south a chemical reaction. Estrus can help kick off some chemical reactions or make them happen faster.

There are a lot of chemical reactions involved in the lighting of a match.

Surprisingly, the showtime chemical to react is not on the lucifer, it is on the box!

This chemical is called "blood-red phosphorus". To our eyes it just looks like a red pulverisation. But if y'all zoomed right in to see how all its atoms are arranged, information technology would look similar a bunch of triangles and other shapes stuck together into a long chain.

When you rub the lucifer on the box, you lot get friction, which means you go heat. This heat causes a small amount of the red phosphorus chain to be broken apart.

When that happens, some of the red phosphorous changes into another chemic called "white phosphorus". Information technology reacts immediately with a gas in the air chosen oxygen. This will create a lot more than heat.

So the story so far: the friction breaks the blood-red phosphorous chain, which allows the white phosphorous to react with oxygen and the friction match starts to become hot.

But that'south non the end of the story.

Fuel + heat + oxygen = fire

You need three ingredients for a fire: fuel, heat, and oxygen.

Friction and white phosphorus have provided the starting heat, and now the lucifer needs fuel and oxygen to continue to burn.

The fuel comes from the sulfur (that'south another chemical) and wax in the head of the match. It too comes from the wood in the matchstick.

When information technology comes to oxygen, the friction match has a hole-and-corner supply. Stored inside the match head is another chemical called "potassium chlorate". When it gets hot, it releases a lot of extra oxygen and heat. This makes the match head fire quickly and strongly.

When yous put it all together – the heat, the fuel, and the oxygen – y'all get a flame! And amazingly, all this chemistry happens in a fraction of a second.

'Strike anywhere' matches

What I've described are safety matches, which are the kind you probably have at dwelling.

But maybe you lot've seen an former cowboy film, or a drawing, where a graphic symbol has lit a lucifer with their kick, a wall, or something else that's not a matchbox.

These matches are known as "strike anywhere" matches, and they work very similarly to safety matches.

The difference is that the phosphorus component is in the match head rather than on the box.

While this is convenient, it is too much more dangerous!

So delight remember — any kind of friction match can exist very, very dangerous, and then never use them without adult supervision.

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Howdy, curious kids! Have you got a question yous'd similar an adept to answer? Enquire an adult to send your question to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au