The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) does all kinds of weird science and develops what becomes the next-generation weapons and technology of our armed forces and government. And some other really random stuff.
Recently, DARPA decided they want to be able to extinguish fires using physics instead of chemicals, y'know, like you want to, since using chemicals is far riskier than using fire’s own properties against it. So how did they achieve this? By surrounding the flame with speakers! How it works is that the sound increases the air speed, which thins out the atmosphere and helps disrupt combustion. It also effects the fuel, disrupting the surface and driving down the overall temperature. Here's a video of how it works.
Oddly, this isn’t the first time DARPA has used physics to put out fire. They’ve also cooked up an ionic wind out of an electric field, but I'm sure that came out of trying to make a better hairdryer.
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