By the end of this activity you will be able to: Identify burning and hazards of burning.

What you should know…

1. When materials are burned, new materials are formed. Changes that occur when most materials are burned are not reversible.
2. When something is burned, the original material turns into ash.
3. Gases are also produced, which you can sometimes smell although you can’t see them.
4. Some materials give off toxic (poisonous) gases when burned, so do not experiment with burning materials yourself – an adult should demonstrate this for you or work with you.
5. Burning is dangerous – it can quickly get out of control to cause serious injury to yourself and other people and/or damage to materials around you.

Fire burning

Burning something is an irreversible change – you cannot get the original material back once it has been burned.

Some materials burn more easily than others. Materials which burn easily are flammable. Look for labels on clothes and furniture which warn you if the material can catch fire easily.

Did you know?
Flammable and inflammable both mean the same thing: inflammable is not the opposite of flammable.