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[MUSIC PLAYING]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
The human volcano, fire breathing--
it's the most dangerous stunt in the fire eater's
repertoire.
But how does it work?
Well, it all hinges on the oxygen in the air.
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When I'm breathing fire, all that's happening is I'm
burning a fuel by blowing it over a flame.
So here's my fuel, and here is my flame--
not very spectacular.
So what's going on?
Well, in order to burn, a fuel needs to be mixed with the
oxygen in the air.
And at the moment, this fuel doesn't have enough oxygen
mixed with it in order for that to happen.
This fuel's not very volatile.
This fuel, however, is very volatile, which means it
evaporates constantly.
It's evaporating more quickly, and it's mixing with the air
all the time.
So let's see what happens.
So you might think that this fuel would be
ideal for fire breathing.
It burns really, really well.
In fact, it burns a bit too well.
If I use this for fire breathing, the flame could
jump back to my mouth, and I'd be in serious trouble.
So it's actually this fuel that I use.
But in order for it to burn, I have to mix it
with the air myself.
And to do that, I spray the fuel in a fine, fine
mist over the flame.
So what's so special about oxygen?
Well, in fact, oxygen is really, really reactive.
It wants to react with other things
to produce new products.
And, in fact, burning is just the name we give to the
chemical reaction between oxygen and a fuel.
Now, the fuel we've got here is a hydrocarbon, which means
it just contains hydrogen and carbon.
And when we react this with oxygen, it produces carbon
dioxide and water.
So we've got the fuel.
We've got the oxygen.
There's one thing missing.
In order to get the reaction going, we need to provide it
with some energy.
And with fire breathing, that energy comes from the
flame on the torch.
Now once that reaction's started, it provides its own
energy and forms a kind of chain reaction.
Now, the end product of this is a giant fire ball.
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And just because I know how that happens doesn't make it
any less terrifying when it does.
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