A question
What is fire made of?
A calm, true answer. Then, if the wondering keeps going, the whole episode.
The short answer
Mostly hot gas. A flame is not the wood itself burning. Heat drives gases out of the hot wood, and those gases burn in the air just above the log, which is why a flame can look like it is floating.
The orange light comes from specks of soot inside the flame, heated until they shine. And most of a dry log came out of the sky in the first place: a tree builds its wood from carbon dioxide, water and sunlight, and burning sends most of that carbon back into the air.
Go deeper tonight
Fire: What a Tree Gives Back
The full episode, in one calm voice, with nothing that startles.
Read the guide for this one in the morning.
This connects to
One idea turns up in many different nights. Follow one and the library starts to join up.
You might wonder next
I like your mind. Just the way it wonders.