Exact temperature at which paper burns

This is where you start needing a much more specialized fire safe because electronics, especially those with magnetic components, can be rendered inoperable at relatively low temperatures. The base line for most data media safes is degrees Fahrenheit which will ensure that all magnetic and optical electronics will not be damaged due to the heat. Also worth noting is the melting point of celluloid used in photography and film which is only around degrees Fahrenheit.

What are you looking for? Is this true, and what would it be in degrees centrigrade? Odonnell Answer has 2 votes. Odonnell 22 year member 58 replies Answer has 2 votes. I couldn't find what the exact temperature paper burns on the internet. Good question. Determine the temperature in Fahrenheit. Using your calculator, subtract Each type of paper will burn at a minutely different temperature depending on its individual properties. And if we mean a book, do we mean something as thick as the Holy Bible, or as thin as a tourist leaflet?

In general, thicker books will require a higher temperature to catch fire and burn because they have a greater density. This is clear when you consider how easily a thin cigarette paper catches alight compared to how long it takes to make a block of wood catch fire.

Technically they are the same material, yet their auto ignition temperature is very different. As paper is an insulator, it draws heat into its own fibers. A thick book will take longer to catch fire because it will draw heat into the center of the book where that heat is then starved of oxygen and extinguished. Only when the outer pages that are exposed to oxygen in the atmosphere catch fire will the rest of the pages take flame.

This will happen more quickly with a single sheet or thin booklet than it will with a massive tome. Let us not forget that the atmospheric and environmental conditions will affect the temperature at which paper will burn as well. Moisture level and air pressure play a part in auto ignition and ignition temperatures, however, they would have to be pretty extreme to create much of a difference to the flashpoint of paper.

If you were up incredibly high, like on top of mount Everest, or down incredibly deep, like the bottom of the ocean, then the atmospheric changes would cause the combustion temperature of paper to be different. As we all know from having thrown newspaper and other types of paper on a campfire, paper lights up very easily when exposed to a flame.

This is because flames are very hot indeed, even little flames like cigarette lighters and candles. They do not always seem like they are particularly hot, but this is because the heat of a flame is very localized. This means that you can place your hands on either side of a flame, just inches away, and not be burned. The hottest part of a flame is not actually the bright orangey, yellow center but the blue aura that hovers just above the flame.

This is the point at which all of the material is being burned and therefore the maximum amount of energy or heat is being produced. As you can see from these flame temperatures, flames are far hotter than degrees Fahrenheit, which is the famous flashpoint temperature at which paper is said to set fire by itself.

It is for this reason that paper is so easy to ignite with a naked flame or spark. This is something that we think ought to be obvious given that cardboard is a heavier, more dense material and can thus insulate against heat more effectively than paper. The number we have for this is degrees Fahrenheit, which is over degrees more than paper requires!

So, if you want to pick an insulating material from paper and cardboard, go with cardboard. Also read: What Makes Something Flammable? At what temperature does paper burn? As for how hot paper gets when it burns? The answer is very hot, indeed, with temperatures of up to 1, degrees Fahrenheit being nothing outside of the normal range.

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