ABSTRACT

The generation of heat on earth has come largely from a process called combustion, and this will continue well into the next century. Combustion is used as a heat source for chemical processing, general heating and drying operations. Combustion is involved in explosions for both useful and hostile purposes. The use of combustion has harmful effects, however. Combustion can involve all phases of matter—solid, liquid and gas. Combustion is a complex subject to master, requiring knowledge of many sub-disclipines of physics, chemistry and physical chemistry. The chemistry needed will be developed as necessary, but it is presumed that the student is familiar with the notions of atoms and molecules. The atomic weight or molecular weight of any other atom or molecule is twelve times the ratio of its actual weight to the weight of the carbon 12 atom. The molecular weight of any compound is merely the sum of the weights of the atomic constituents.