Poll: Is it possible to melt a tree?

[Daipire]

Even people can melt (and I'm not talking about raiders of the lost ark shit either) in a vaccuum and under high temperatures.

Find out what the main chemicals in trees are and simply get the melting temps for those. And people are carbon based, and carbon melts at 3500 Celsius.

The more you know!

 

[GundamSentinel]

Put it in vacuum so it can't combust and heat it enough and it'll probably melt. The trick is to make sure it doesn't burn, so no oxygen.

I'm no chemistry whiz, but that might work.

[edit] Oh yeah, no liquids in vacuum... Well, small liquid bubbles may form because the surface tension is small enough. It doesn't have to be a perfect vacuum... So the trick might be to melt it very slowly.

Or wait, maybe melt the tree not in a vacuum, but in an oxygen free atmosphere. Just melt it in a room filled with helium or something... Just find a gas that won't react at higher temperatures (if it exists).

 

[RaphaelsRedemption]

Yes a Tree can melt. Just put it into lava.

HA HA!

My thoughts exactly.

Well done, that man.

 

[Thedutchjelle]

I was thinking, cuz i kno that if u get a tree hot, it burns. But what if you heated it up in a vaccuum, theres no oxygen so it cudnt combust, but the heat energy is still being applied. I want liquid tree!!!

If you melt something, it becomes liquid. Liquids can't exist in a vacuum.

My chem knowledge sucks, but what if, in stead of using a vacuum, you'd just replace the air with some inert gas or something?

You could try that. NItrogen is usually used, but even a inert gas might react under extreme temperatures.

Even people can melt (and I'm not talking about raiders of the lost ark shit either) in a vaccuum and under high temperatures.

Find out what the main chemicals in trees are and simply get the melting temps for those. And people are carbon based, and carbon melts at 3500 Celsius.

The more you know!

Melting points can't really be estimated that way - the melting point can be vastly different if it's in a molecule due to the bonds between various atoms. Hydrogen has a melting point of -259 C , but water, which consists 2/3 of Hydrogen , only melts at 0 C.

I would also like to point out that wood and trees are biological, and biological matter tends to degrade very quickly if heated up that much, as all the enzymes and complex molecules break down...you might get a molten substance at one point, but I don't think that it can be considered wood anymore at that point.

I'm not an expert in chemistry, I'm just basing this of my 5 years of high-school chemistry knowledge (which will be tested in an exam within 4 hours D: )

 

[CuddlyCombine]

Everything can melt, but technically it wouldn't be a tree at that point. You'd have to compress the gases from the initial combustion into a solid, which you could then melt. With a tree, by the time you got to a hot-enough temperature, the chemical bonds will have broken down and you'd be left with a bunch of component molecules.

The rough rule of thumb is; if it can be heated without major changes to physical state, it will probably melt (e.g. rocks, metals).

 

[Soxafloppin]

One of you guys should try this out somewhere, seriously.

I want a liquid tree too.

 

[Spineyguy]

There are methods by which you can make something appear to melt without it actually reaching its melt point. But if you're talking about just heating it up, then it'd just explode.

 

[Mordwyl]

If my chemistry stands true then due to the energy released from the molecules in a vacuum which cannot move it would lose stability but not actually melt.

 

[Yokai]

Someone call the guys at Mythbusters.

I honestly don't know; trees are made up of so many different compounds it would be hard to say if it would all melt at once, or just sort of disintegrate...I don't know!

 

[cuddly_tomato]

Well, technically cant any matter melt?

No. Melting is when things go from a solid to a liquid state, and some things sublimate (go directly from solid to gas).

 

[MySoxSmell]

I was thinking, cuz i kno that if u get a tree hot, it burns. But what if you heated it up in a vaccuum, theres no oxygen so it cudnt combust, but the heat energy is still being applied. I want liquid tree!!!

If you melt something, it becomes liquid. Liquids can't exist in a vacuum.

My chem knowledge sucks, but what if, in stead of using a vacuum, you'd just replace the air with some inert gas or something?

You could try that. NItrogen is usually used, but even a inert gas might react under extreme temperatures.

Even people can melt (and I'm not talking about raiders of the lost ark shit either) in a vaccuum and under high temperatures.

Find out what the main chemicals in trees are and simply get the melting temps for those. And people are carbon based, and carbon melts at 3500 Celsius.

The more you know!

Melting points can't really be estimated that way - the melting point can be vastly different if it's in a molecule due to the bonds between various atoms. Hydrogen has a melting point of -259 C , but water, which consists 2/3 of Hydrogen , only melts at 0 C.

I would also like to point out that wood and trees are biological, and biological matter tends to degrade very quickly if heated up that much, as all the enzymes and complex molecules break down...you might get a molten substance at one point, but I don't think that it can be considered wood anymore at that point.

I'm not an expert in chemistry, I'm just basing this of my 5 years of high-school chemistry knowledge (which will be tested in an exam within 4 hours D: )

well technically water isn't two thirds hydrogen, that may be the ratio of hydrogen to
oxygen but you must take into account the size of the atoms as well
seeing as oxygen is said to weigh 16 nano grams or some kind of gram while
hydrogen weighs 1 of said unit, so the actual ratio sits at about one to nine of every whatevergram of a water molecule being hydrogen

 

[Revolutionary]

No but you can kill it with fire

 

[Danny Ocean]

NewScientist Says No. [http://www.last-word.com/content_handling/show_tree/tree_id/2505.html]

Damn, beaten to it.

 

[Thedutchjelle]

I was thinking, cuz i kno that if u get a tree hot, it burns. But what if you heated it up in a vaccuum, theres no oxygen so it cudnt combust, but the heat energy is still being applied. I want liquid tree!!!

If you melt something, it becomes liquid. Liquids can't exist in a vacuum.

My chem knowledge sucks, but what if, in stead of using a vacuum, you'd just replace the air with some inert gas or something?

You could try that. NItrogen is usually used, but even a inert gas might react under extreme temperatures.

Even people can melt (and I'm not talking about raiders of the lost ark shit either) in a vaccuum and under high temperatures.

Find out what the main chemicals in trees are and simply get the melting temps for those. And people are carbon based, and carbon melts at 3500 Celsius.

The more you know!

Melting points can't really be estimated that way - the melting point can be vastly different if it's in a molecule due to the bonds between various atoms. Hydrogen has a melting point of -259 C , but water, which consists 2/3 of Hydrogen , only melts at 0 C.

I would also like to point out that wood and trees are biological, and biological matter tends to degrade very quickly if heated up that much, as all the enzymes and complex molecules break down...you might get a molten substance at one point, but I don't think that it can be considered wood anymore at that point.

I'm not an expert in chemistry, I'm just basing this of my 5 years of high-school chemistry knowledge (which will be tested in an exam within 4 hours D: )

well technically water isn't two thirds hydrogen, that may be the ratio of hydrogen to
oxygen but you must take into account the size of the atoms as well
seeing as oxygen is said to weigh 16 nano grams or some kind of gram while
hydrogen weighs 1 of said unit, so the actual ratio sits at about one to nine of every whatevergram of a water molecule being hydrogen

True, oxygen is 16 u while hydrogen is 1 u in mass , but I was using the H2O more as example. Despite their tiny size, each H-atom in H2O is able to form a bond with the O-atom of an adjacent H2O molecule, making the whole substance a lot stronger to break.
But as I said, it was more an example to show how properties of an pure substance can't be directly translated to the same atom in a molecule.. if you get what I mean.

 

[Tartarga]

Damn, its at times like this that I wish I knew a scientist.

 

[MySoxSmell]

yea i know, i was just kinda trolling i spose

 

[oppp7]

All substances have melting points, so yes.