SMOKE 101 !

  Smoke is a primary sign of incomplete combustion. The composition of smoke might be different for different burning substances it can be ashes, soot particles ,oil ,carbon monoxide , etc. This means smoke is only produced when there is lack of supply of oxygen or other necessary conditions for burning.

So here comes are main topic: What actually makes up the color of smoke? What does the color symbolizes?
So we can predict few things about the burning substance/fuel  just by observing its base color.

If smoke is white in color it means that the burning substance is releasing water vapor, means fire has just started to consume material. We can also infer that the fuel might be light and flashy fuel like grass/twigs/dried leaves.

If smoke is black in color it means heavy fuels are doing incomplete combustion, which results into dark smoke. This kind of smoke also signifies a man made compound is burning such as tires and wire coating. We can also infer from the darkness of the smoke how volatile the fire is, darker the smoke more volatile fire is.

If smoke is greyish in color it signifies that fire is cooling down and running out of materials to burn.

 We also sometimes see smoke showing different gradient of colors, for instance while observing cigarette smoke. This phenomena is very easy and base behind the different colors of sky during the day. The one word for this phenomenon is "Scattering" of Light!!

{ I would explain scattering in simpler words in my some other post soon.}