George wrote:
wrote in message
oups.com...

Not to diminish any dangers or recommend against any safety practices,
but it's often difficult to get a lit match to light a flammable
liquid, let alone a handful of dust.


Dead wrong!

It is easy to light a _flammable_ liquid (e.g. gasoline) with a match,
that follows from the formal definition of 'flammable'.

It is not easy to light a _combustible_ liquid (e.g. kerosine)
with a match as you have to heat it to the flashpoint before it
will ignite.


Which of course demonstrates that it's not the liquid, but the gas which
ignites....

Precisely.

The flashpoint for a liquid is approximately the temperature a which
the partial pressure of the vapor over the liquid reaches the LEL.

In theory, I suppose they are exactly the same but in practice
flashpoint is determined in a laboratory and there are at least
two methods used that can give slightly different results--open
cup and closed cup.

--

FF