Fire and Chemistry — A Form of Process-State Element

Chemistry textbooks tell us: fire is not an element, not a substance, but a phenomenon — the release of light and heat during rapid oxidation. This definition is correct, but it may miss a more fundamental question: although fire has no place on the periodic table, it is a real existence. It drives change, transforms matter, releases energy, and lies at the heart of every chemical reaction. This paper proposes a new way of understanding fire: fire is a “process-state element” — it does not exist in atomic form, but it does participate in the transformation of matter. If “element” is understood as “a fundamental unit that constitutes the world,” then fire may be the fundamental unit that constitutes “the process of change.”