flames

Flames come in all colors. A wood fire in a fireplace is yellow, orange, red, white, and blue. The colors in a flame depend on two things: the temperature of the fire and what material is being burned. After reaching orange-red, a hotter fire would become yellow, then white, then blue -- the hottest of all. Fire needs oxygen and undergoes oxidation. When a candle is burning, the middle of the flame, near the bottom, isn't getting much oxygen so it looks darker. The outside the top of flame are getting lots of air and the flame burns brightly there. The tiny pieces of carbon that fly up from the burning wax are hotter -- more than 2500 degrees Fahrenheit. So instead of glowing red, they glow yellow. Near the burning wick, the flame is blue -- because it's even hotter there. A wood fire burns at a lower temperature than a candle, so it is usually more orange than yellow. Other colors in a fire come from the different chemical elements in the burning wood.