Science Forums 2

[Boerseun]

Seen a couple of interesting experiments on flames in zero-g as well. Seeing as the hot air from the flame can't go 'up', sucking in fresh oxygen at the bottom, if you strike a match in zero-g, it just makes a sphere of flame as the sulphur head ignites, and then dies as no oxygen is getting to the flame.

Apparently it's also impossible to boil water in space (apart from nuking it in a microwave). Seeing as convection doesn't happen, an element heats up and causes steam bubbles to isolate it from the rest of the water. So you end up with a container with boiling liquid in the one side, and cold liquid on the other side.

I'll look for the link for those pics - pretty cool flame ball, though.