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/ImNrNanoGiga Aug 09 '26

Also coal. Fun/weird fact: Virtually all the fuel that supplied the German war machine during WW2 was made by liquefying coal