Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Burning temperature

Zinc - 20-5-2007 at 13:08

At http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_burner it writes that pure propane burns at 1,980 °C and pure butane at 1,970 °C but propane/butane burns at 1,225 °C. Why does the mixture burn at a much lower temperature?

[Edited on 20-5-2007 by Zinc]

Eclectic - 20-5-2007 at 14:25

Because the writers of Wikipedia articles can make up and use any numbers they want to?

not_important - 20-5-2007 at 20:19

There are a number of different ways to measure flame temperature, as well as different conditions. If you try to compare numbers from measurements done in different ways, you'll find that there is not much meaningful in the comparison.


This is what you wamt to look in

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0960159614


This shows fairly close values for several gaseous fuels

http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/flame-temperatures-gases-d...


http://www.derose.net/steve/resources/engtables/flametemp.ht...

16MillionEyes - 28-5-2007 at 18:21

Perhaps it has something to do with oxygen affinity. I really don't know though.