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The Molecular Reality of Burning Fuel
Discover Where Fire Heat Actually Comes From
A fire or a running engine does not create new energy. The heat was already locked inside the fuel molecules the whole time. To release it, the fuel and oxygen must first be torn apart into free atoms, which costs energy. Those atoms then snap back together into carbon dioxide and water, which are much more stable and release far more energy than was spent breaking the original bonds. The leftover difference is the heat you feel. The perfect recipe is called stoichiometry—about 17 kilograms of air for every kilogram of methane, or roughly 14.7…
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