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littlestymaar01/20/20251 replyview on HN

It's not about the state itself, but about temperature. For things to burn you need to have three elements:

- a fuel

- an oxidizer

- enough heat

It's the fire triangle.


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ben_w01/20/2025

> but about temperature

Which is why I said water would raise the temperature because the oxygen is liquid oxygen — i.e. very cold.

I mentioned solid phase because you were saying "if you mixed liquid oxygen and fuel nothing would happen". There are also videos of people starting fires by pouring LOX onto things.

The fuel and oxidiser in a rocket are often pumped around the outside of the engine bell before reaching the injectors, in order to keep the engine bell itself from melting due to the heat of combustion. I'm not sure exactly what temperature the fuel and oxidiser are at when they hit the injector, but I've seen ground tests where there's frost on the outer wall while the engine is running.

Also, one of the (rare) Falcon rocket failures was due to ice (IIRC oxygen ice) building up around the plumbing during flight: https://www.adastraspace.com/p/spacex-falcon-9-grounded

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