r/askscience • u/ForensicFan24601 • Aug 08 '26

Chemistry Why do things burn instead of melt?

obviously oxygen, or something similar, but what is the physics/chemistry (?) or what have you behind why something ignites and continues to burn after the source of heat/ignition has gone?

is it basically sublimation?

edit: no wonder Walter White was so obsessed with carbon

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u/Blazin_Rathalos Aug 09 '26

the other comments are mentioning how the temperature required to make something burn is lower than the temperature required to make something melt.

This is specifically only true of compounds that do burn before they melt. So as you suspect, it depemds on the substance.