Ongoing discussion for students in Chemistry III

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Sunday, October 30, 2011

Combust-ed!

When it comes to light, there are two common ways in which light is created--incandescence and luminescence. Incandescence is light from heat energy; when you heat something, it will begin to glow. When an electric stove or metal begins to glow, incandescence is occurring. Luminescence, however, is light than can be emitted at normal and lower temperatures. Bioluminescence is the production and emission of light by a living organism. Bioluminescence is a naturally occurring form of chemiluminescence where energy is released by a chemical reaction in the form of light emission. A chemical reaction occurs transpires inside an organism, which involves luciferin (a naturally occurring enzyme in bioluminescent animals) and oxygen. When this chemical reaction occurs, the bioluminescent organism successfully emits light.

Because bioluminescence is a type of chemiluminescence, and not incandescence, the light not produced via heat energy. The fact that the "bug" was hot to the touch proves that this organism is rather inefficient in its producing of bioluminescent light. As previously stated, bioluminescent light is NOT the product of heat energy, rather, the result of a chemical reaction between luciferin and oxygen.

Combustion, or burning, is a series of exothermic chemical reactions between a fueling substance and oxygen; these chemical reactions result in the release of heat and production of light in the form of either glowing or flame.
Combustion, however, is completely different from bioluminescence in that light is produced from heat--similar to incandescence. Although this "bug" feels hot to the touch, combustion is not necessarily occurring; combustion occurs within the temperature range of 175ºC all the way to 450ºC. It is very possible that the bug reached temperatures around 100ºC, which would be hot enough to burn a person's finger. It is highly unlikely that the bioluminescent organism had reached the temperatures necessary for combustion to occur, however, it is possible that it was hot enough to burn the skin on a person's finger.


  • "HowStuffWorks "How Bioluminescence Works"" HowStuffWorks "Science" Web. 30 Oct. 2011. .
  • "Combustion." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 30 Oct. 2011. .
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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I totally agree! The bug would not have been able to reach high enough temperatures that would actually cause it to combust

October 30, 2011 at 1:10 PM
Anonymous said...

I agree as well. I particularly like how you distinguish combustion from bioluminescence in your post.

October 30, 2011 at 3:41 PM
Anonymous said...

I agree with you stand point on the bug not reaching a high enough temperature to combust as well as how Bioluminescence does not produce heat because it is not that kind of Chemiluminescence.

October 30, 2011 at 6:11 PM
Anonymous said...

Brett, I like and agree with your point about how combustion was certainly not occurring in the bug. This is because the bug would most likely not be able to get to such high temperatures to and still be alive.

October 31, 2011 at 6:20 PM

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