With a trustworthy computer model of combustion, engineers...

With a trustworthy computer model of combustion, engineers can design improved engines or fuel blends without needing to build and test so many different versions. The database of chemical reactions needed for such a computer program is too big to be filled in strictly with measured numbers, and we have to rely on chemical rate theory to calculate much of this database. Our experiments are important for showing how far we should trust these calculations.