Students Test Flame In Space | Video

Fire behaves very differently in space. How different fuels achieve combustion in the microgravity of orbit is under study at the University of California's San Diego School of Engineering.

[Quagigitymire]

Congratulations to these students of UC San Diego. I wish you the best and hope your work and attention to detail ends in a successful and productive experiment. It's people like these who will lead the way towards economically sound and efficient alternative fuels outside the normal fossil fuels this nation, this world, are so dependent on to keep the wheels turning. Not only will these experiments help on the ground, but they could potentially lead to better sources of propulsion in space.

[Quagigitymire]

One would likely benefit not to be so demanding of those commenting on YouTube. If one spends his time seeking out and calling others on their grammar, spelling, and many other seemingly trivia and minor mistakes they would likely be driven mad crazy in their endless and fruitless quest.
This man's comment makes the point and does enough to give others the idea of his intentions. No need to bust balls.

[rojasbdm]

Such an interesting experiment. as an engineering student I can't wait to know about the results.

[zipeeeeez]

Science is huge fun when you like any aspect of it.

[PeterGeras]

I admit, he could certainly have meant that. It's a common fault for people to fall into the trap of thinking that satellites don't in fact accelerate towards the Earth, so I jumped to that conclusion too soon.

[MichaelJohnBattista]

well done and as we will enter the beyond

[PeterGeras]

Thank you for the lesson, but I have a minor in Physics and have been following the astronauts' footage taken onboard the ISS for months now.

[SonsOfHateSphere]

But I think, what he means with "falling slowly" is the distance from Earth's surface and the ISS is slowly decreasing, and not the actual speed of the ISS.

[OnePieceOfOddish]

Zero Gravity is actually a constant fall where the space ship or item will carry on falling to earth however it will spin away, this is then called orbit!

[danielbluesmoke]

Let's be honest, they're not doing it for the science. They're doing it for the fun!

[ninjaed]

They are experiencing 0 g. When you are on a rollercoaster and it drops very rapidly you experience 0 g. Orbit is constantly falling but failing to hit the ground because you missed.

[PeterGeras]

No, he's wrong. Gravity is not a constant (although there is a gravitational constant) and the ISS doesn't fall slowly, it falls to Earth at nearly the same rate as we do. Also, it staying up there because "it's travelling fast" doesn't even begin to tell the entire story.

[SonsOfHateSphere]

It's falling/orbiting with ~17, 000 mph. That is pretty darn fast. We can put it in perspective: the ISS is orbiting the Earth just like Lunar does - pulled by gravity. Just like every planet in a solar system - pulled by the gravity from the center star. Just like a galaxy - pulled by the gravity from a black hole. I could go on. But basicly every object in the universe is affected by gravity from any source. :)

[Kombaiyashii]

Wow, good luck people. I have a really dumb question: Why is it that fire is circular at zero-gravity? Does that imply there is some kind of mass to fire?

[PeterGeras]

I was never proven wrong, I was simply shown another way of interpreting your phrase, which is why I switched my argument to poor wording ;)

[mark.edfordef]

yeah im aware of that but one of these guys used the term "no gravity" that within space that contains objects of great mass is a misnomer!

[PeterGeras]

The problem I have is with his choice of words. Falling slowly? It falls at nearly the same rate as objects on the surface of Earth do.

[mark.edfordef]

watch it again, the second guy clearly says "no gravity"

[PeterGeras]

They're failing to comprehend your poor choice of words.

[DrVitoti]

fire is incandescent air, as with all gases, air has mass.