Description

"The Fire Dance" - How tickling photons make the atoms and molecules jiggle and wiggle.Dancing molecules and atoms. Tickling photons. Fire is fascinating! Have you ever wondered why wood can burn? What does heat actually mean?Well, as a scientist I always try to ask deeper questions, such as: What do the atoms actually do when a fire is ignited? Why is fire not only hot but also bright? How come, wood takes ages to grow, but can be burned within minutes?... This short story is trying to answer these questions in an illustrative and simple way, easy to understand by anyone. It provides a view on the combustion process through the children eyes of a physicist.Short summary:Oxygen, hydrogen and carbon atoms are essential building blocks of the natural world around us. Reaching out for other atoms, to hold each other's hands, they can form molecules. Depending on who teams up with whom, they form gases, liquids or even solids. Plants grow by taking in water, light, and carbon dioxide. Photons are super fast and full of energy. They tickle the atoms and make them jiggle and wiggle. They help to get the fire dance started by messing everything up. Eventually, there is a huge chaos - the fire dance of the atoms and molecules - that decomposes the wood back into its original components.Kids are taught in a playful way what our environment is made of and how these processes work. The goal of this short story is to entertain not to explain every detail absolutely scientifically correct. Perhaps, the readers are inspired to ask further questions.