Poll: Is it possible to melt a tree?

[TheTim]

The same question has baffled me since 6th grade, never found a resonable answer to it.

 

[Marter]

I think you could melt it. You'd just need a really high temperature.

 

[TheLastCylon]

There are so many different compounds in a tree with different melting points. It wouldn't melt like you want it to.

 

[Canid117]

It might turn plasmic if it gets hot enough but alas your liquid tree dream seems unlikely.

 

[Necator15]

You can get things to melt, but it won't be a tree, and some stuff will probably evaporate/sublimate before the entire thing is melted. So I'll go with "No" on that one. Even in Neon, I doubt you could get an entire tree into only the liquid state.

 

[Gaiazun]

Before effecting the molecules the heat would effect the cells. The way i see it the liquid in the cells would expand until they burst, and as mentioned earlier complex molecules would break down, leaving you with a puddle of organic material.
Not sure if this could be considered melting since much of it is already liquid bound by cell walls.

 

[DanDeFool]

Seems to me like it would vaporize before it would melt, especially in a vacuum.

And on an unrelated anecdote, there was a tree that got hit by lightning near my parent's house. It was during the summer and the tree was alive so it didn't burn, but I think the lightning actually blew all of its bark off. Not 100% sure if that's what really happened, but if it did that would be pretty 'effing metal.

 

[Bigsmith]

Because of what a tree is made of it will combust before it melted, either that or the sap would cause it to explode. But you could melt the remains.. oh wait, thats carbon... that would just burn b4 it melted to..

 

[Lunar Templar]

lmao, random thought topic is awesome, i also desire a liquid tree, some one get on it XD XD
XD

 

[spectrenihlus]

It would be pretty cool if you could melt wood. Imagine the sculptures or objects you can make if wood could do that.

 

[Trivun]

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.

Where the hell did you learn science? I'm currently meant to be revising for an exam on fluid dynamics, and I can tell you right now that liquids can exist wherever the hell they please, including in a vacuum. Whoever told you that liquids can't exist in a vacuum is a complete and utter fool.

 

[Lukeje]

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

No; the melting point of water is dependent on the ratio of H:O, not the ratio of their masses. I suggest you look up `hydrogen bonding'.

 

[zehydra]

OMFG this is the best thread I've seen on here in a long time... I suppose if you just raised the environment's temperature really high I guess it would. But the leaves would before the trunk, I think.

 

[Twilight_guy]

No. It's elements have different melting points. It would melt in parts, or if it does melt all together then its elements would separate based on weight. Either way, it stops being a tree in the end and becomes a pile of liquid. It doesn't matter though since nobody is going to stick a tree into a vacuum and apply several thousand degrees worth of energy.

Also, just how high are you right now? Stop smoking the dope son.

 

[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.

Where the hell did you learn science? I'm currently meant to be revising for an exam on fluid dynamics, and I can tell you right now that liquids can exist wherever the hell they please, including in a vacuum. Whoever told you that liquids can't exist in a vacuum is a complete and utter fool.

To be honest, I can't recall where I got that from. Interesting, I thought for a long time that liquids couldn't exist in vacuum.. I didn't had much lessons about pressure and vacuum during physics or chemistry, so my knowledge of this is rather limited, I'll confess. Can water exist in a vacuum then?
Wikipedia says this :

Deep vacuum lowers the boiling point of liquids and promotes low temperature outgassing...

and this

Blood and other body fluids do boil when their pressure drops below 6.3 kPa, (47 Torr) the vapour pressure of water at body temperature.

So perhaps it's just water then? Or can really every liquid exist in a vacuum?

OT:
Perhaps it's time for a new video series
"Will it melt? That's the question."

 

[Trivun]

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.

Where the hell did you learn science? I'm currently meant to be revising for an exam on fluid dynamics, and I can tell you right now that liquids can exist wherever the hell they please, including in a vacuum. Whoever told you that liquids can't exist in a vacuum is a complete and utter fool.

To be honest, I can't recall where I got that from. Interesting, I thought for a long time that liquids couldn't exist in vacuum.. I didn't had much lessons about pressure and vacuum during physics or chemistry, so my knowledge of this is rather limited, I'll confess. Can water exist in a vacuum then?
Wikipedia says this :

Deep vacuum lowers the boiling point of liquids and promotes low temperature outgassing...

and this

Blood and other body fluids do boil when their pressure drops below 6.3 kPa, (47 Torr) the vapour pressure of water at body temperature.

So perhaps it's just water then? Or can really every liquid exist in a vacuum?

OT:
Perhaps it's time for a new video series
"Will it melt? That's the question."

Every single liquid will exist in a vacuum. Reason being that liquids come between gases and solids in the various states of matter. There are actually at least four that are known, after gases comes plasma (or rather, superheated gas to the point it's still gas but acts like liquid). Possibly more, but I'm not sure.

Anyway, space is a vacuum and is also at absolute zero. That is, -273 degrees Celcius, or 0 Kelvin, the lowest possible temperature for anything because it is the complete absence of heat. At absolute zero, there is literally zero kinetic energy in particles, since heat is created by particles vibrating (transferring their kinetic energy to heat energy), so at that temperature all matter is solid. But gases also exist in a vacuum, as we've proven with countless experiments and as you yourself pointed out. So therefore if solids and gases can both exist no matter what their chemical makeup is, then liquids must be able to, coming between them in the levels of energy that their particles have.

Sounds complicated, so long story short, all solids and all gases can exist in a vacuum, therefore all liquids must do as well.

 

[Icecoldcynic]

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!

Errm... No. In a vacuum at a hich temperature, people explode. You can try and argue that the remains would melt, but as others have said before, it wouldn't really be a person anymore.

The more you know!