Important research

Learning what fire actually is, like what the flames are literally made of, blew my freaking mind years ago.

Fire is literally just gas (and fine solid particulates suspended therein) that contains so much thermal energy that its black body radiosity has reached into the visual spectrum.

There are some types of flames that are NOT bright enough to be visible under ambient lighting conditions and can only be seen in environments that are very dark!

Pure ethanol, for instance, combusts dark enough that you can't see the flames in daylight conditions, or even under strong artificial lighting.

Methanol fires in racing are scary. No flame, no smoke, just burning you.
- I had an RC car as a kid with a small combustion engine that used methanol. When I and my friend realised that methanol burns without a flame we got so excited. It brought a new dimension to our army men shenanigans. That and discovering home made napalm.
- New fear aquired
- I saw that in a documentary recently. Absolutely terrifying.
  
  https://youtu.be/JribVbv6CV4
that its black body radiosity has reached into the visual spectrum

Ehm wut.
- It gets so hot that it glows. Like how a filament in an incandescent light bulb glows when enough electricity is put through it.
- Black body radiation is how you express thermal energy
I've heard propane is a clean burning gas, I tell you hwat.
- "That boy ain't right!"
  
  /)

For the love of all that is holy stop cropping out the artist's watermarks

it is literally more effort to crop out the watermark

It isnt cropped out is it? There's still some on there at least.
I don't understand why some people do it, it's just such an insanely shitty thing to do that doesn't seem like it'd have any benefit whatsoever (not saying it was the OP, these tend to float around the internet.)

Wikipedia rabbit holes at 3 am 🔥

Me up until 3am, thinking I should go to bed

1:30h documentary on roman concrete later, I'm still thinking I should go to bed

As a physicist, I find I get less confident in my ability to answer questions like this each day.

Probably doesn't help that every consecutive year of physics education is like "anyway everything we taught you last year is a simplification that's technically wrong. Here's how it really works now that you know enough math to understand the next level"

Me with the Technology Connections and Legal Eagle YouTube channels lately.

Why did I just spend an hour learning how they recorded audio on VHS?

Ha, I too had important research to do last night

We're not talking about that kind of research ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

To be fair, it is important to know what is fire.

*fire is the rapid oxidization of fuel resulting in heat and light.

Eli5. What is fire?

Fire is a sustained chemical reaction where carbon-based molecules are broken up and combine with oxygen, releasing carbon dioxide, sometimes methane, and heat (and thus light), which primes the remaining carbon-based molecules for continued chemical reactions with oxygen.
- Financial Independence Retire Early
- Can there be fire without carbon and oxygen? Does the sun burn carbon and oxygen?
Financial Independence Retire Early

We only research the important things at night

A few minutes past 3, so he did indeed stay up long.

Here's something I find interesting.

Firstly, the definition from Wikipedia: Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products.

For all you bad cooks out there, the reason you can't burn water when you're cooking is because water is already fully oxidized. Water is also often one of those reaction products the definition talks about.

I other words, you can't burn water because it's already burnt.

Also, in order to have fire you need heat, and water is wonderful at absolving and dissipating heat.