Is a lighter effective because it’s on fire? Or just because it’s hot?

If you made a lighter that was just as hot as another lighter, would it work just as well even if it had no fire?

  • Sakychu@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Something quite interesting in relation to that is that it takes a lot more energy to start a wood fire if you would use a heating coil instead of an open flame. Why? There are only about 4 papers about that and they are all old and the methodology weren’t up to modern standards so take that with a grain of salt

    • Lvxferre@mander.xyz
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      10 months ago

      I’m kind of guessing it, but perhaps it’s because of heat conduction. Fire pretty much directs the heat to one direction (the top), while the coil probably spreads it evenly.