Why Smoke Always Blows in Your Face Around a Fire

Hank Green of SciShow excitedly explained why smoke blows in your face and follows you around a fire despite where you’re sitting.

You know how you somehow end up getting smoke in your eyes wherever you stand around a bonfire? Well, it turns out that’s not a curse! It’s much more easily explained with physics.

As it turns out, the human body blocks the airflow that allows smoke to escape. If that body was not there, the smoke would simply dissipate.

…the real key to understanding why  smoke keeps blowing in your face is that the rising air doesn’t just rise on its own. It is pushed by the air around it. Because when hot air moves away from  the fire, the air that pushed it keeps right on going and fills the  gap that the hot air left behind. And this is where you come in.