# Why water doesn't burn **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [July 31, 2002, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-water-doesnt-burn/121605 "2002-07-31T00:14:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2002, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-water-doesnt-burn/121605/1 "2002-07-31T00:14:30Z")
And furthermore, why fire isn’t wet. Long, long ago, I was shown a parlor trick related, distantly, to this ghostly OP. A paper cup, filled with water, was tilted at roughly 45 degrees. A flame from a butane lighter was applied to the side of the cup. A bet was made over the time the cup would burn through. It didn’t. The water-cooled cup never got hot enough to burn. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2002, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-water-doesnt-burn/121605/2 "2002-07-31T02:39:17Z")
Since this thread at least has one response (although the OP seems to have been eaten), I guess I’ll put the link to the column in this one. Just in case there’s a discussion. [Water contains hydrogen and oxygen. Why doesn’t it burn?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a970905.html). Welcome to the SDMB, HagopT. We have a server powered by a hamster running in a wheel, and sometimes he has a blood sugar crisis and has to eat an OP or two in order to keep going. Just the breaks. Would you perhaps care to repost your OP? ---
**Author:** ![Bindlestiff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Bindlestiff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bindlestiff)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2002, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-water-doesnt-burn/121605/3 "2002-07-31T18:24:57Z")
I’ve read that old-time out-doorsmen (“mountain men”) could boil water in containers made of bark. I wonder if that’s true. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2002, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-water-doesnt-burn/121605/4 "2002-07-31T21:43:23Z")
Thin bark shouldn’t be much different than paper, **Bindlestiff** , and I’ve personally boiled water in paper. In fact, if it’s fresh bark, it’d still be moist clear through, so it may even work better. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2002, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-water-doesnt-burn/121605/5 "2002-08-08T02:29:44Z")
That’s nothin’. It is possible to build a useable _liquid-fuelled rocket engine reaction chamber_ out of oak! ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2002, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-water-doesnt-burn/121605/6 "2002-08-08T02:53:42Z")
…Cite? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2002, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-water-doesnt-burn/121605/7 "2002-08-08T08:24:45Z")
Well, I personally have one made out of plastic. I believe he may be talking about a water rocket. These are those toy devices made by pressurizing air and water in a bottle, then releasing. The pressurized air forces the water out, and the water exiting the nozzle is a rocket, driving the bottle through the air. There are even groups that make their own out of soda bottles and have competitions and suck. I suppose it would be possible to make one out of oak, though I personally wouldn’t want to try it. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2002, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-water-doesnt-burn/121605/8 "2002-08-08T17:44:40Z")
> [@](#): > > There are even groups that make their own out of soda bottles and have competitions and suck. Wait a moment… If they suck, wouldn’t that make the rockets go backwards? 😉 And it probably is possible to make a genuine rocket combustion chamber out of good hardwood. Sure, it’d burn, but as long as it burned more slowly than the propellant, and you had no intention of reusing it, that wouldn’t be too big of a problem. And you’d have to make the walls thicker for strength, and possibly use a less energetic fuel, but it could be done. Mind you, I wouldn’t try it with balsa, but with oak, or walnut, or especially something like musclewood, sure. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-water-doesnt-burn/121605/9 "2002-08-12T03:45:20Z")
Well toy rockets have propellant tubes made out of cardboard, so oak would hardly seem a problem ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-water-doesnt-burn/121605/10 "2002-08-12T03:50:45Z")
Well toy rockets have propellant tubes made out of cardboard, so oak would hardly seem a problem