There are many things in our life that we take for granted, and so we lose interest in them. However, sometimes you have to be curious and wonder how our world works. Among the many questions we should ask ourselves is why wood burns, but metal does not. Here is the answer.
How does a fire ignite?
Everyone knows that wood and metal are very different. On the one hand, wood is a material of plant origin that is generally obtained after cutting down a tree. As for the metal, this term designates a set of materials whose atoms are united by metallic bonds and which are obtained by extraction in mines. Since these two elements are structurally very different, it’s no wonder to learn that their physical properties are equally different.
To understand why and how wood burns, you have to understand how fire comes to life. Any flame requires three essential ingredients: oxygen, fuel and heat. If just one of these elements is missing, a fire will not burn. As part of the air, oxygen is usually the easiest to find. The role of oxygen is to combine with the fuel. As for the ignition, it can be a lighter, a match or a spark produced by the friction of two solid bodies. And finally, the fuel is what the fire will burn.
Almost anything can burn, but some fuels just have a much higher burning point, and therefore need very high temperatures to ignite. Conversely, some fuels ignite very quickly. To explain this, you have to know that when you burn something, the atoms begin to vibrate more and more strongly as the temperature increases. Arrived at a certain point, the atoms will break the bonds which unite them. Simply put, the combustion properties of something depend on the strength of the chemical bonds that hold the fuel together.
A huge difference in the chemical bonds of wood and metal
If we take the case of wood, this material essentially contains molecules made up of bonded atoms of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. When temperatures are high enough, such as when lightning strikes a tree or a log is thrown on an already lit fire, these bonds break. A process, called pyrolysis, then releases atoms and energy. Pyrolysis of wood leads to the release of certain volatile gases and the formation of charcoal, which eventually undergo fiery and incandescent reactions respectively in order to release thermal energy.
As far as metal is concerned, these materials have particularly strong chemical bonds, especially compared to wood; and this also explains their property of thermal conductivity. So when you try to burn metal, the bonds won’t break, and the material will just absorb the heat from the fire. For its part, wood simply does not have this ability to absorb heat. It should still be noted that there are metals that burn, including potassium and titanium, which are used to make fireworks.
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