> temp > à-trier > black-fire-ri

How Is Black Fire Made?

The Royal Institution - 2018-12-12

Sodium flames can appear black in the light of a sodium lamp. Natasha explains the physics behind it.
Subscribe for regular science videos: http://bit.ly/RiSubscRibe

---
A very special thank you to our Patreon supporters who help make these videos happen, especially:
Alessandro Mecca, Ashok Bommisetti, Avrahaim Chein, bestape, Elizabeth Greasley, Greg Nagel, Lester Su, Rebecca Pan, Robert D Finrock, Roger Baker, Sergei Solovev and Will Knott.
---

The Ri is on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheRoyalInstitution
and Twitter: http://twitter.com/ri_science
and Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/royalinstitution
and Tumblr: http://ri-science.tumblr.com/
Our editorial policy: http://www.rigb.org/home/editorial-policy
Subscribe for the latest science videos: http://bit.ly/RiNewsletter

nutwiss - 2018-12-12

You should do more of these 'give full, scientific, lay-friendly explanations of things we've seen on YouTube' videos. They're great and often fill important gaps left by other creators.

zerooskul - 2018-12-13

Non-plasma, non-photonic mass waste Is not black fire, it is smoke.

Maxwell Hosler - 2018-12-13

@zerooskul If it were smoke, the body of the fire would not be black. It is not smoke, at least in the usual sense. It is sodium atoms absorbing light.

And yes, you could argue that mass floating in midair is smoke, except that would be a terrible, confusing way to explain it. Because, for the sake of a video for laypeople, it is not smoke. For clear communication, smoke is the grey residue that floats off of a flame. It is not the vaporized particles which are glowing to create the flame.

Your pedantry is unproductive.

P.S. Most flame is not plasma. Certainly not the type you see day-to-day. It is far too cool to have enough atoms ionized at once.

zerooskul - 2018-12-13

Maxwell Hosler: you are either a fool or aliar. It is exactly smoke in the usual sense. The body of the fire is not black. The body of the fire is yellow. The yellow ligh cancels out the yellow light so all thst's left is black smoke. Explaining it more complicatedly than that to lay-people has what value? It is non-plasma. Who cares what plasma actually is for this argument? It is non-photonic. It is smoke. Exactly smoke.

Maxwell Hosler - 2018-12-13

@zerooskul First of all, at 3:01 we clearly see that the body of the flame is black.

First of all, the yellow light wouldn't "cancel out" if there were no other mechanisms at play. The flame would appear brighter than the background.

Second, your implied definition of smoke is wrong. The smoke is solid particulates, light enough to be suspended in air. The black mass we see is not smoke; it is vaporized (gaseous) fuel and sodium, which is rapidly be oxidized.

Finally, I'm not even sure what you mean by photonic. Do you mean light-emitting? Because that's not what photonic means. And yes, most of the gas in a flame is non-light-emitting. Most of it is not energized, and so not glowing. However, any atom in the gas cloud has the potential to become energized. They are not waste products; both the light-emitting atoms and the non-light-emitting atoms have equal potential to become light-emitting.

Furthermore, your proposed model does not fit with what is seen at 3:01. If the flame was simply made invisible and the smoke was all that that remained visible, we would predict that the black mass would act like smoke. However, it does not. Smoke would waft upwards. The black flame, however, acts like a flame. Even if your explanation was correct, then, it is far from a complete model.

Hermione3 Müller - 2018-12-15

but please please please without the horrible music overlaying everything and thus preventing me from understanding a single word she is saying! at least 10% of the population , like myself, cannot understand spoken words when there is any kind of background noise. we are excluded from this wonderful knowledge for no reasonable reason. please allow us poor folks into your circle and at least publish one barrierfree version without this horrible noise! Thank you very much.

The Royal Institution - 2018-12-12

You may have noticed already but we really like fire here at the Ri. Big fires. Small fires. Now even black fire. Mmm, fire.

Lex Vegers - 2018-12-18

@The Royal Institution Feasibility? Omission seems to be quite feasible, I should think.

tabaks - 2018-12-21

I've also noticed your content is getting dumber every day. Your job should be to elevate popular knowledge, not go with the idiot flow.

jafinch78 - 2019-01-30

@tabaks I felt like I was teased and not provided with a thorough explanation at the end. Almost like the pickle was Freudian more than slip related too. Yes, I feel like I was flirted with, coerced, seduced, manipulated and with some intimidation that left me in a vulnerable state of slush funded mess. Maybe that is why Oliver Heaviside and other great Men of Science were left in different peculiar states in society only to be productive at the science.

Matt Martineau - 2020-01-14

That, and, BOOM... Lots, and, lots of BOOM, points at Szydlo..

MATRIX - 2020-06-14

Black fires matter

Nettowaku - 2018-12-22

Finally they made Amaterasu into a real thing.

J Nick - 2018-12-21

Black flame can only be created with amaterasu justsu.

The Gayest Person on YouTube - 2018-12-12

Clearly the next step is to soak more cucumbers in different salts to make them glow. Rubidium brine: the most expensive way to make pickles!

DANG JOS - 2018-12-13

@TheChipmunk2008 haha

Count Dracula - 2018-12-13

I was thinking isn't one of Rubidium's isotopes slightly radioactive, then I looked up its half-life - 49 billion years! You would get a much much much much much higher dose from the potassium in lo-salt or a Banana!

The Gayest Person on YouTube - 2018-12-13

DANG JOS only one way to find out!

galfisk - 2018-12-18

@Count Dracula 18 mg RbCl = 1 banana equivalent according to Wikipedia.

Terry Pitt-Brooke - 2019-01-14

also, one of the most toxic!

Tony Park - 2018-12-23

* ITACHI INTENSIFIES *

Muantea 21 - 2018-12-21

Simple , you need hate , pain and need to be a talented dude born in the uchiha clan and voila , black flames

Luca Istvánsson - 2018-12-12

puts a green apple in red light, apple turns black... surprised pikachu face

Pursuits of Life. - 2018-12-31

... I didn't know that, I'd actually have that face

Muneeb Akmal - 2019-06-24

Does that really happens?

Madness by Design - 2018-12-17

Not gonna lie: I want to use pickles as light sources now...

Madness by Design - 2019-01-24

I'll make the T-shirts to get the movement started... :)

Kathy Loves Physics & History - 2019-01-24

Madness by Design only if the t-shirts are also made of pickles

Madness by Design - 2019-01-24

I like the way you think. I'm on it... :)

Kathy Loves Physics & History - 2019-01-24

Madness by Design would you say you are in a pickle now? (Sorry sorry sorry)

Madness by Design - 2019-01-24

I'm disturbed that you don't seem to be taking this pickle based technology seriously... :)

Red55911 - 2018-12-25

AMATERESU!! YOU STOLE MY JUTSU

Anchor Bait - 2018-12-12

Please keep talking, it sounds lovely.

Sayuri - 2018-12-23

okay where is Itachi i know he’s behind this vid

David - 2018-12-12

Amaterasu?

Kagamine Len - 2018-12-29

@nyetloki ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) who knows

Zeno Sama - 2019-04-13

Rpy Lamp he didn’t really kill his parents just for the eyes lol. You should probably rewatch naruto if you missed the most important scene in the anime

fariz ramadhan - 2019-06-18

I actually predicted this before scrolling trough the comment section

Chad Hend - 2019-12-07

Naruto

Peppermint Swirl - 2020-04-13

naruto wasagatashi ayayayaya kaiiichii kawaiii uguuu senpai anikiii

pope7 - 2018-12-16

Please make more videos with this woman! Her energy, voice, and cadence stopped everyone in a busy room to watch this video. Great work.

Gary Card - 2018-12-18

She has a most lovely English accent, but it would be nice to have a presenter with a Cockney accent, too.

Filthy Insurrectionist - 2018-12-20

@Gary Card no

Crusades 1298 - 2018-12-20

ENTON : KAGUTSUCHI

pao Canieso - 2018-12-21

You need to have mangekyo sharingan first 😎

Carlos Ramirez - 2018-12-19

The way you say words is nice

Flat Finger Tuning - 2018-12-16

By my understanding, the sodium doesn't just absorb light from the background--it's also re-emitting it, but in random directions. Basically, it's taken light which is concentrated in a direction toward the camera, and randomly redistributing it so only a tiny bit is still heading toward the camera. The effect is similar to that of snow on a white highway sign at night. Many highway signs are made of a material that concentrates back light toward the source. When illuminated by a car's headlights, the light that hits the sign will be directed in the general direction of the car in question, making the sign appear to glow brightly. The parts that are covered with snow, however, will distribute the light from a car's headlight in a much wider range of directions.

Rizal Fauzi - 2018-12-22

Black flames born from the Abyss bear no shadow. They are said to be the impenetrable fires of humanity.

Joaquin Javier - 2019-01-05

I feel genuinely smarter watching this

Paul Cooper - 2018-12-12

So if the flame is absorbing the light, when does it get released or is it bound within the yield of the combustion?

tabaks - 2018-12-12

Paul Cooper, they've failed to complete the circle of explanation.

hanelyp1 - 2018-12-13

There's a lot more than sodium ions in the flame, so the energy would be easily transferred from the sodium to other ions and molecules by collision.

ZockerTwins - 2018-12-15

I learned in school that the light eventually gets emitted from the sodium again. It has the same wavelength but is equally spread in all directions, making it a lot darker because less light from the flame reaches the eye.

Bread - 2018-12-22

That's... That's not what she meant by "absorbing the light". It's not a literal process of absorption. It's the way light works - with surfaces absorbing different wavelenghts.

Ben Shoe - 2018-12-30

Time to replace the lights in my house with pickles I guess

freewilliam93 - 2018-12-12

Witchcraft is science

Zeugl Cockatrice - 2018-12-12

science is witchcraft explained

LagiNaLangAko23 - 2019-01-02

@Zeugl Cockatrice magic is unexplained science

Naukowy Wariat - 2018-12-12

Could You add some scientific terms on the description? It helps teachers find this very nice explanation.

SJ Calamia - 2019-03-28

@央礼 Does that help or just adding keywords just in case?

央礼 - 2019-03-28

SJ Calamia those are words coherent with what she said in the video

SJ Calamia - 2019-04-01

@央礼 I get that, but does adding keywords into a comment do anything/much at all for the searchability of the video itself?

央礼 - 2019-04-01

SJ Calamia no, I am just helping Naukowy lol I am not insinuating anything... well if I hurt your feelings, snowflake, I am sorry. 🙂

SJ Calamia - 2019-04-02

@央礼 wow dude, I was asking a legit question. That escalated quickly huh? 😆😂😆😂😆😂😆

Ever consider that not everyone is attacking you?

Celt Gunn - 2018-12-12

Very fascinating, Thank you for such a great demonstration!

Brian Harrison - 2020-06-04

this is fascinating, thanks for explaining it a way that actually makes sense.

THE RISER - 2019-01-09

Friede had an interesting carrer change after The Ashes of Ariandel.

Steve Pick - 2018-12-16

This was great, the explanation was clear and uncluttered, more like this please!

alana Eustaquio - 2018-12-22

NEVER IN MY ENTIER LIFA HAVE I'VE HEARD OF! AND SEEN SOMETHING SO... EPIC!!! Even when putting 2 simple words in a double word combo choux be so EPIC.

Koro Boubacar - 2018-12-25

Surprasingly no one said « Amaterasu » i’m proud of this comment section

Jonah Bodnovits - 2018-12-18

I have been looking for this effect for months. Thank you for posting this

Zeph Pendragon - 2018-12-19

Itachi Approves. Amaterasu!

Zeedijk Mike - 2018-12-12

Love these gold nuggets of science, explained in a very clear way.

Paweł Czerski - 2018-12-16

"How to make pickles glow!" should be the title of this video.

Wolfgang Hendery - 2018-12-15

That was beautiful. And what a wonderful reaction.

Freizeitflugsphäre - 2018-12-21

Wow that's great! Science is awesome!👍🏼

Nicc2324 - 2019-07-30

Amaterasu! @_<

Lovreli - 2018-12-18

That's pretty amazing actually.

CasanovaGamings - 2018-12-22

1:12 The fibonacci

Yami Akuno - 2019-09-07

1:43

Boggless - 2018-12-12

Ameterasu!

Amira Lozse - 2018-12-17

some amazing witchcraft!
And a stunning witch to go with

Crxmson kage - 2018-12-14

AMATERASU

David Wilks - 2018-12-20

HEY..HEY.. I've just caught my 6 year old about to plug in a live wire with pickle on the end... you owe me a new kettle. 😠

Matt Martineau - 2020-01-14

Came to Youtube for entertainment, today...
I got distracted... ;)

Stuart Smith - 2018-12-12

Love your work

SilvaDreams - 2018-12-17

"When street lights first come on in the evening you might notice they are this pinkish color" Sadly I do not see this because we modernized and have LED streetlights.

Tragoudistros.MPH - 2018-12-19

2:40 Pickle Rick! Nooooooo!
mmm science

j4d3 goat - 2018-12-15

Yellow light from a pickle! I'll be blowed - that's great!

EdMcF1 - 2018-12-15

I had a pickle like that in a kebab once.