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Fire: Combustion or Decomposition?

These downloadable videos and animations are part of the multimedia package Stuff and Substance, developed by the Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme (SEP). They can be used to develop ideas relating to the distinction between combustion and decomposition in the context of ‘burning’ materials.

Combustion is a reaction with oxygen that does not always produce a flame, for example carbon. Decomposition often precedes combustion when materials are heated. For example, when sugar and wood are set on fire the flames are the combustion of decomposition products, not sugar and wood in their gas states. Most students conflate combustion and decomposition under the general heading of ‘burning’. These resources can be used to develop understanding of the distinction between the two processes. The videos explore examples of decomposition and/or combustion with carbon, sugar, wood and string and the difference between glass and string wicked candles. The animations help to explain what is happening in terms of substances at the level of molecules and atoms. Questions and diagrams to accompany these resources are given in the Stuff and Substance package.

These video and animation files form part of the resources in the section Fire in the Stuff and Substance multimedia package, which provides a series of interactive pages that can be used by teachers or students in the classroom.

Please note: From 2021, Adobe has discontinued support for Flash player and as a result some interactive files may no longer be playable. As an alternative method to accessing these files a group of volunteers passionate about the preservation of internet history have created project Ruffle (https://ruffle.rs/). Ruffle is an entirely open source project that you can download and run many interactive Flash resources. For further information regarding STEM Learning’s policy for website content, please visit our terms and conditions page.

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Download all files as a .zip52.77 MB
Information on the permitted use of this resource is covered by the Category Three Content section in STEM Learning’s Terms and conditions.
Subject(s)Science, Chemistry
Age11-14
Published2000 - 2009
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Direct URLhttps://www.stem.org.uk/rxvpb

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