Why do you seldom see phosphorus fires in cemeteries now?

Phosphorus fire is commonly known as "ghost fire". On a dry night in summer, go to a place where rural graves are concentrated, and you will have a chance to see the real thing. Sometimes these "ghost fires" will follow in your footsteps!

I believe many friends from rural areas know what wildfire is. When passing through places with many graves at night, you will occasionally see blue flames burning in the air. It is estimated that timid people will scare their legs when they see a "jack-o 'lantern".

But now it is rarely heard that there will be phosphorus fire. Why? Before explaining the reason, let's first understand what a phosphorus fire is.

Phosphorus fire, as its name implies, is related to "phosphorus", especially phosphine, which is a colorless, flammable and toxic gas with the chemical formula of PH3. Pure phosphine is tasteless, but when other phosphorus-containing substances generate phosphine, it will be accompanied by the smell of garlic or rotten fish.

In rural areas where graves are concentrated, the protagonist is, of course, the remains of the deceased underground. In addition to carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, the human body itself also contains some other trace elements, such as phosphorus, sulfur and iron. When the remains are decomposed in the coffin of a grave, three gases are produced: hydrogen carbide, hydrogen sulfide and phosphine.

Hydrogen chloride is methane, and hydrogen sulfide smells like rotten eggs. Human farts also contain hydrogen sulfide. Hydrogen chloride and hydrogen sulfide are not easy to spontaneously ignite, but phosphine will burn when it meets oxygen, and by the way, methane and hydrogen sulfide will be ignited together, resulting in a "ghost fire"!

Because phosphine is easy to spontaneously ignite, the content of phosphine in the earth's atmosphere is not much, and the average content of phosphine in the air of 1 m3 is between 0. 1ng 1000ng.

In a word, the occurrence of phosphorus fire is mainly due to the fact that when the body of the deceased under the grave is decomposed by microorganisms, the gas produced rises from the gap of the coffin to the surface of the grave, and the phosphine in it spontaneously ignites when it meets oxygen, igniting the hydrogen sulfide and methane emitted together.

I believe most people have this feeling that the occasional wildfire in rural areas in the past is now rare, mainly because of the following reasons:

1. Cremation is popular now, and most graves are filled with urns of the deceased.

The appearance of phosphorus fire is mainly caused by the combustion of gas produced by the decomposition of remains. In the past, most of the rural areas were buried in the earth, and the remains of the deceased rotted in coffins, resulting in a terrible "ghost fire."

But now cremation has been carried out in most parts of the country, leaving only a pile of ashes after cremation. In many rural areas, ashes will be buried in coffins, but in such graves, there are no bodies of the deceased, and there will be no gas generated by microorganisms decomposing the bodies.

There are fewer and fewer graves in the countryside.

Phosphine is a necessary condition for the occurrence of phosphorus fire, but there is not much phosphine produced by the decomposition of remains, so phosphorus fire generally appears in areas where graves are concentrated. In the past, in rural areas, the dead of a family were generally buried in one area, forming a small cemetery, and it was not surprising that there was a phosphorus fire.

But now, after death, in many areas, after cremation, urns will be stored in funeral homes or buried in public cemeteries. As in the past, there are fewer and fewer small cemeteries, and there are fewer opportunities to see phosphorus fires.

3. The night light in the countryside blocks the faint light of the phosphorus fire.

The phosphorus fire in the cemetery is generally weak. After the three combustible gases are burned, the phosphorus fire disappears and generally does not cause a fire.

In the former countryside, if there was no moonlight, it would be dark at night, and the weak phosphorus fire would be obvious. But now in rural areas, not only roads reach every village, but also street lamps are built in every village. Even at night, many places are bright. In this case, even if there is phosphorus fire in the grave, it will not be easily found.

In short, with the implementation of cremation and the progress of rural construction, the phenomenon of phosphorus fire that appeared in the cemetery before is now rare.

In the rural areas in the past, not only phosphorus fires can be seen near cemeteries, but also "ghost fires" can appear behind people. It's scary to think about it.

But if you figure out the principle, you won't be afraid. Phosphine, which produces phosphorus fire, is very light. On a windless night, if someone passes by the cemetery, it will drive the air near the cemetery to flow, and gases such as phosphine will also flow with people's footsteps, so there will be a phenomenon of "ghost fire" chasing people!

Most friends who care about astronomy know that the average temperature on the surface of Venus is as high as 460, so it is impossible for life to exist at such a high temperature.

However, in the journal Nature-Astronomy from June 5438 to last year 10, there was a study that caused a sensation in the whole scientific community. This study said that Venus contains a lot of phosphine in the atmosphere, which was quickly interpreted as the possibility of life on Venus.

Why do these people interpret the existence of phosphine on Venus as the possibility of life? This is related to the formation of phosphine.

As we mentioned earlier, phosphine is produced by the decomposition of corpses, and phosphine will not exist stably because it will spontaneously ignite when it meets oxygen.

Therefore, they think that the existence of phosphine on Venus means that there are animal remains on Venus, which decompose to produce phosphine.

However, according to the current human exploration of Venus, the main components of its atmosphere are carbon dioxide and sulfide, and it is unlikely that there will be a large amount of phosphine on Venus. Even if there is phosphorus fire on Venus, it can't prove that there are animal remains there.

Phosphorus fire is what we commonly call "ghost fire". In the past, phosphorus fires occasionally appeared in rural cemeteries.

But now the cemetery in the countryside is very different from before. Buried underground is not the remains of the deceased, but the ashes of the deceased after cremation, so it is unlikely that there will be phosphorus fire.

Have you ever seen a wildfire before? Welcome to write down what you saw and heard in the comments section below!

"Phosphorus fire" is a kind of gas called phosphine, which is produced by the decomposition of body tissues when the human body decays. This gas and air can spontaneously ignite, and the flame is blue. Because it is a kind of gas combustion, when someone approaches it, the airflow driven by the human body will "wash it away". In the dark night, it is like a "ghost". You chase it, it runs, so it's called it.

There are two reasons why "jack-o'-lantern" is rarely seen in the cemetery now. First, with the popularization of electricity and the dispersion of night lights, the original dark night disappeared and the blue flame disappeared. Second, cremation is the basic practice now, and burial is rare. Even if there is, there are few opportunities for people to catch up because of the small quantity.

Some are chicken bones and duck bones. I walked through the night and saw the blue of the phosphorus fire. You can only see it at the border, not during the day. Graves in rural areas are scattered and not very concentrated. There are several graves in the bamboo forest behind the foundation of the house. Therefore, where chickens are put, there are bones, pig bones and human bones in the deep foundation. Now it has been leveled and used to repair country roads. The phosphorus fire is out of sight. The cement road has been driven under the subgrade.

In the past, in rural cemeteries, every summer, when the moon was bright and the stars were sparse, and the weather was fine, there were looming fire groups in the cemetery, which would flutter with the wind. People call this mysterious fire group "ghost fire", which is actually a foolish and superstitious statement. Why do you seldom see the real reason for this kind of ghost fire now? I will introduce it in detail in a scientific way, and you will understand it after reading it.

People call it "ghost fire", which is a kind of fire mass that appears in mass graves in remote rural areas on a clear summer night. This phenomenon is scientifically called phosphorus fire. The reason why phosphorus fires occur is because people in the past did not cremate after death, but put them directly into coffins, dug a deep pit underground and buried the coffins directly.

The remains were decomposed and fermented by underground microorganisms. In a few months, everyone's bodies will rot, leaving only bones. Bone contains phosphorus, which will produce phosphorus compounds at a proper temperature.

Phosphorus compounds gradually penetrate into the soil for a long time and decompose to form phosphine. Phosphine leaks into the air from the ground and comes into contact with oxygen in the air. Due to the high temperature in summer, it is easy to reach the self-ignition point of phosphine gas. The weak flame produced by phosphine combustion is the phosphorus fire seen in the cemetery in summer night.

Phosphorus has three colors: white phosphorus, red phosphorus and black phosphorus, in which white phosphorus and red phosphorus are free pure phosphorus and belong to elemental phosphorus. Phosphorus contained in human body is a compound, and phosphorus is the main component of human bones and teeth.

85% of human phosphorus is distributed in teeth and bones, and the rest 15% of phosphorus is in human blood. After phosphorus in human bones is decomposed into phosphine, it will spontaneously ignite when it meets air and the temperature reaches 40 degrees.

Phosphorus is a flammable substance with a very low ignition point. Phosphorus combustion needs to reach the lowest spontaneous combustion point of phosphorus, so most phosphorus fires people see occur on sunny days in summer.

In fact, the temperature is high during the day in summer, and the phosphorus fire burns more fully, but the flame color of the phosphorus fire is very dark. We can't see this kind of fire at all when the sun is shining directly during the day, and we can only see it at sunny nights in summer.

Phosphorus is converted from phosphate to phosphine. Phosphine is a gaseous substance with low ignition point. When the temperature reaches or approaches 40 degrees, phosphine gas will spontaneously ignite when it comes into contact with oxygen.

Common phosphorus fires have many colors, mainly blue, red and green. Why do phosphorus fires show different colors? In fact, this is related to various trace elements contained in the human body.

The different colors of phosphorus fire indicate that each human body contains different elements and compounds, and the color of jack-o'-lantern is related to the content of trace elements in human bones. If the phosphorus fire has a special color, it means that there are many trace elements in human bones or animal bones, which leads to different colors of phosphorus fire.

There was no concept of cremation when people died before. After death, people are directly put into coffins and buried underground. The remains are decomposed by microorganisms underground and gradually return to nature. When microorganisms decompose the remains, they will produce two gases, namely, hydrogen carbide and hydrogen sulfide.

After the tissue of the remains is decomposed by microorganisms, only the skeleton is left in the human body, and phosphorus in the skeleton will generate phosphine. At this time, there are three gases in the confined space of the underground coffin, namely phosphine, hydrogen carbide and hydrogen sulfide.

People fart with hydrogen sulfide, so hydrogen sulfide smells like rotten eggs. Hydrocarbon is what we usually call methane, which is a flammable and explosive gas.

Phosphine is a kind of active gas, which is transformed from phosphorus in human bones. When it comes into contact with air and oxygen, it will spontaneously ignite. When phosphine burns, it will ignite hydrogen carbide and hydrogen sulfide. The main substance burning at this time is phosphine, so it is called phosphorus fire. Because this kind of fire mostly occurs in graves, it is called a ghost fire by the people.

Why do you seldom see phosphorus fires now?

In order to effectively save land and carry out funeral reform, Mao Zedong, Zhu De, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping and others jointly signed 1956 on April 27, advocating cremation, and then this resolution was popularized throughout the country.

So far, cremation has been practiced in China for 65 years. After death, human remains are burned in a cremator at a high temperature of several thousand degrees. /kloc-there are only two or three kilograms of ashes left in the body of more than 0/00 kilograms, and the phosphorus in the ashes has been burned out. The ashes buried in the underground coffin do not have the ability to decompose into combustible phosphorus fire hydrogen, so no phosphorus fire can be seen.

1956 The people who died before were buried underground, and the bodies were buried deep underground. Phosphorus in human bones is transformed into phosphine after a period of warping, which has the conditions to form phosphorus fire.

However, with the passage of time, the content of phosphorus decomposed into phosphine in human bones is less and less. After decades, the phosphorus in human remains has been decomposed, which is the main reason why phosphorus fires are almost invisible now.

In the past, there was no electricity for lighting in rural areas. Before liberation, only Shanghai, Beijing and other big cities in China had electricity. At night, the countryside was dark and opaque. The burning light of phosphorus fire is very weak. In rural or mountainous areas where there was no electricity before, it can be seen from a distance in the dark at night.

However, earth-shaking changes have taken place in the countryside. Straight roads, beautifully planned buildings, and bright street lights on both sides of the road at night. The night in developed cities is as bright as the day. This bright artificial light affects people's sight, and the weak phosphorus flame is invisible because of the influence of current lighting equipment.

In the past, people in rural areas worked at sunrise and rested at sunset. When farming is busy, it is still the most primitive way of working with people and animals as the main labor force, rushing to harvest and sow, and often busy until late at night. On a sunny night, in a rural cemetery, hardworking people are still working. It is normal to see burning phosphorus fires between cemeteries. Rural people all know these truths, so there is nothing to make a fuss about.

Man struggles upwards. With people's living standards getting higher and higher, people have gone to cities, bought commercial houses and lived in the jungle of reinforced concrete. After dinner, everyone plays mobile phones or watches TV on the computer at home. No one wants to go back to the countryside at night, which leads to some people who have never seen phosphorus fires after 80 s and 90 s, so fewer and fewer people will find this phenomenon.

Although cremation has been carried out in China for 65 years, after cremation in rural areas, the ashes will be buried in coffins, which will also occupy limited cultivated land resources.

In order to save cultivated land resources and increase grain output. In some places, people are cremated directly after death and buried in cemeteries. This is a new type of environmental protection funeral, which is worth popularizing. With the change of people's concept of funeral, people are buried directly in cemeteries after death, resulting in fewer and fewer cemeteries in rural areas, and the chances of seeing phosphorus fires will naturally become less and less.

Phosphine is a very light gas. When it meets oxygen in the air, it will spontaneously ignite when the temperature reaches 40 degrees. When the phosphorus fire meets the wind, it will drift with the wind. The faster the wind speed, the faster the phosphorus fire will drift.

When a phosphorus fire is found in the wild at night, curious people will go there to find out. When you are close to the wildfire, the light wildfire will move backwards with the airflow you are moving forward, because the weak airflow you are moving forward is enough to make the wildfire move.

Most people must be extremely nervous and scared when they find this situation. Coupled with all kinds of legends about ghost fires, you must want to run away at this time. When you turn and run away, the airflow will pull the wildfire behind your ass. The faster you run, the faster the wildfire moves, and the frequency of wildfire is the same as yours. The wildfire seems to follow you on purpose, but it is actually the effect of your moving airflow.

Human bones contain phosphorus, which can produce phosphine. Animals that died unexpectedly in the wild years ago, such as cattle, sheep, horses, dogs, wild boar and other animals. After these animals die, their remains are buried underground, and the bones left behind also contain phosphorus, which can also be converted into phosphine.

On a clear night, phosphine decomposed from these buried animal remains will burn with oxygen in the air, leading to weak burning phosphorus fires in some places without cemeteries. There must be animal remains from several years ago near the underground where the phosphorus fire burns.

Have you ever seen a wildfire? What color is that? What was your mood at that time? Please write down your feelings in the comments section.