Okay, I know that fire is a chemical reaction involving oxygen and carbon. Beyond that I'm pretty much clueless. So, all of you who can, fill me in!

How Fire Works (http://howstuffworks.lycoszone.com/fire1.htm)

I didn't read that site, but just a little side note. Combustion can happen between many, many different chemical substances. It doesn't necessarily have to be between oxygen and carbon. There's a bunch where oxygen isn't even required. People are so used to seeing oxygen in fire everywhere (campfires, stoves, house fires, matches, etc) that many believe oxygen is needed for fire. We see it so much just because oxygen is a very abundent gas in the atmosphere.

There's a bunch where oxygen isn't even required. People are so used to seeing oxygen in fire everywhere (campfires, stoves, house fires, matches, etc) that many believe oxygen is needed for fire.

What sort of fire are you talking about? All I've ever heard of is fire being the result of burning which ALWAYS requires oxygen. I'm curious.

Fluorine is also a strong oxidizer. It's sometimes used in rockets as the oxidizer instead of oxygen. I will post with some specific reactions where fluorine is used as the oxidizer instead of oxygen.

My apoligies for not knowing how to subscript numbers. The numbers after the element/compund are subscripts.
F2 + H2 -> 2HF Highly toxic and it's combustion. Make an aqueous solution of it and you have hydrofluoric acid. Not a strong acid, but it dissolves glass and isn't good to touch.

"When exposed to bright visible light, mixtures of methane with chlorine or fluorine react explosively."
http://scifun.chem.wisc.edu/chemweek/methane/methane.html


http://encyclopedia.com/html/c1/combusti.asp
"Combustion need not involve oxygen; e.g., hydrogen burns in chlorine to form hydrogen chloride with the liberation of heat and light characteristic of combustion"





More to come.....