# Can you melt wood? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 11, 2012, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-melt-wood/634411 "2012-09-11T17:32:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Frat\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Frat\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frat_Guy)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-melt-wood/634411/1 "2012-09-11T17:32:09Z")
Hey everyone! My first post here and I’m happy to be a part of this amazing forum. Seeing as how my search results yielded no information, I figured I had done my due diligence in order to make a new thread. I was in my advanced Physics lecture yesterday and we were discussing the melting points of items and the teacher went on to say that everything has a melting point. I asked if wood was part of that category as well. And he could not answer me (haha). Anyone have some information on this? ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-melt-wood/634411/2 "2012-09-11T17:35:22Z")
Every element, perhaps? ---
**Author:** ![Szlater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@Szlater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Szlater)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-melt-wood/634411/3 "2012-09-11T17:38:29Z")
[Cecil knows!](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2767/why-doesnt-wood-melt) It burns before it gets to its melting point. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-melt-wood/634411/4 "2012-09-11T17:44:30Z")
Now that the GQ has been addressed, I’ll mention I know a woman who is sooooo ugly. . . ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-melt-wood/634411/5 "2012-09-11T17:48:56Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Now that the GQ has been addressed, I’ll mention I know a woman who is sooooo ugly. . . [everyone]How ugly is she…? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-melt-wood/634411/6 "2012-09-11T18:05:16Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > [everyone]How ugly is she…? She could melt wood! (boo. . .hiss) ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-melt-wood/634411/7 "2012-09-11T18:06:42Z")
> [@Szlater](#): > > [Cecil knows!](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2767/why-doesnt-wood-melt) > > It burns before it gets to its melting point. Even in a vacuum, wood won’t melt. It will decompose first. ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-melt-wood/634411/8 "2012-09-11T18:29:02Z")
No, everything does not have a melting point. your instructor is incorrect. Some things will decompose into various constituents, and those constituents might have a melting point. In addition to wood, there may be various complex items made up of many different things, like cotton or other biological materials. I think of glass too; it doesn’t have a melting ‘point’ that is easily demarcated ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-melt-wood/634411/9 "2012-09-11T18:30:36Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > Even in a vacuum, wood won’t melt. It will decompose first. not necessarily a vacuum, but any non-oxidizing atmosphere. This was an experiment in my ninth-grade science class, the [destructive distillation of wood.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destructive_distillation) We packed a test tube with wood splints, and stoppered it with a glass tube leading through the stopper and then passing through a cooling bath. A burner under the test tube cooked the wood; the tiny bit of oxygen in there was soon consumed and replaced with CO2 and other wood combustion products, and then - with no more oxygen available - the wood began decomposing into some interesting chemicals that distilled out as combustible liquids and gases after passing through the cooling bath. But it never did recondense as wood. We definitely were not melting or vaporizing wood. **El\_Kabong** has it: every element has a melting point, but not every compound does. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-melt-wood/634411/10 "2012-09-11T18:32:05Z")
> [@Sigene](#): > > No, everything does not have a melting point. > > your instructor is incorrect. Some things will decompose into various constituents, and those constituents might have a melting point. > > In addition to wood, there may be various complex items made up of many different things, like cotton or other biological materials. > > I think of glass too; it doesn’t have a melting ‘point’ that is easily demarcated I believe that glass is considered to be in a liquid state at room temperature even though it appears solid, it just flows downward very slowly. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-melt-wood/634411/11 "2012-09-11T18:39:43Z")
> [@badger5149](#): > > I believe that glass is considered to be in a liquid state at room temperature even though it appears solid, it just flows downward very slowly. _QI klaxon goes off_ [Wrong!](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass#Glass_versus_supercooled_liquid) ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-melt-wood/634411/12 "2012-09-11T18:42:39Z")
If by very slowly you mean would take several times the age of the universe in order to noticeably deform, yes. ---
**Author:** ![Szlater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@Szlater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Szlater)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-melt-wood/634411/13 "2012-09-11T18:43:23Z")
> [@badger5149](#): > > I believe that glass is considered to be in a liquid state at room temperature even though it appears solid, it just flows downward very slowly. Glass is an [amorphous solid](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=fact-fiction-glass-liquid), not a liquid. It does flow, but at an incredibly slow rate. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-melt-wood/634411/14 "2012-09-11T18:46:16Z")
Glass has been found in the tombs of egyptian pharaohs. Surely, if glass flows fast enough to thicken the bottom edge of a window pane in a colonial farmhouse, the glass in the tombs should be a puddle on the floor. Yet, no one has ever seen that happen. (also, why is there no american show like QI, huh? Thank god someone’s put loads of episodes up on youtube.) ---
**Author:** ![Szlater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@Szlater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Szlater)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-melt-wood/634411/15 "2012-09-11T18:52:26Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > (also, why is there no american show like QI, huh? Thank god someone’s put loads of episodes up on youtube.) Are there any panel shows in the US? I wouldn’t have thought it was the kind of show that would be ideal as an introduction to the format. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-melt-wood/634411/16 "2012-09-11T19:03:28Z")
No, there aren’t and it’s a shame. I really enjoy stuff like WILTY, 8 Out of 10 Cats and QI. ---
**Author:** ![Szlater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@Szlater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Szlater)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-melt-wood/634411/17 "2012-09-11T19:14:12Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > No, there aren’t and it’s a shame. I really enjoy stuff like WILTY, 8 Out of 10 Cats and QI. I wonder why, panel shows are really cheap to produce (hence I think one of the reasons there are so many here). I think John Hodgeman could be a decent host for QI USA. Maybe you should write to BBC America and ask for a US version of QI.They are making a lot more shows for US audiences these days and a cheap panel show would probably go down quite well with their accountants. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-melt-wood/634411/18 "2012-09-11T19:17:35Z")
I dunno. I’d say 45% of the fun is watching David Mitchell get upset and rant for 3 minutes. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-melt-wood/634411/19 "2012-09-11T19:37:50Z")
He wood not answer you. Do farts have a melting point? ---
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-melt-wood/634411/20 "2012-09-11T20:20:30Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > I dunno. I’d say 45% of the fun is watching David Mitchell get upset and rant for 3 minutes. Then you might enjoy his [Soapbox](http://www.youtube.com/user/davidmitchellsoapbox). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-melt-wood/634411.md?page=2)