Viewing Thread:
"WHY!?"

Can someone tell me why Flakes(chocolate bar) don't melt and just end up burning.

I know they melt eventually if you leave them out,but I want to know why they burn if you heat them up.

WHY?! WHYYYYYY!?

I wish i never asked now

It's a scientific question, so a scientific answer is needed.

Here's some more from me.

Something will burn if the combustion reaction gives out energy. With something like steel, this is not the case. It will eventually melt instead, but never burn.

Presumably, the combustion of the flake gives out more energy that it requires, so it burns. It will melt instead, if you apply much less heat over a much longer period of time. There is a certain amount of energy needed to 'trigger' the combustion. If you give it more than that, it burns.

Now, as to why a flake burns and other chocolate melts, it must be to do with the ingredients in the flake.

Ingredients in cadburys flake: Milk, Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Cocoa Mass, Vegetable mass, Emulsifier E442, Flavourings

Sugar burns, as does Cocoa (I think), so I can only presume the answer is because cadburys flake has a higher content of these two ingredients than other chocolate.

Mystique wrote:
> Does anyone have a non scientific answer to why it burns instead of melting?

but the answer to your question lies in the science that governs all our lives, that half of us dont even know about!

Goatboy wrote:
> Thank you.
You are noble and wise, gifted and talented.

blah blah blah

*draws gun*

Reply to my email!

basically if you leave it out in the sun the CHOCOLATE slowly melts doing nothing to the flakes. If you heat it in the micro or sommat it is heating it too hot and so satrts to burn the chocolate and (slighty) the flakes. Slowly heat it up in the micro and the choco will melt better... with out that horrible stench!

Does anyone have a non scientific answer to why it burns instead of melting?

Back to the subject. If you only warm the flake, then it is not hot enough to burn the sugar, but it is to break the bonds between the molecules, so it melts. If you heat it a lot, the sugar burns and it is set on fire.

Thank you.
You are noble and wise, gifted and talented.

blah blah blah

VenomByte wrote:

The fact that
> the chocolate is wafer thin, has no bearing on what chemical structure the
> chocolate has - and therefore there's no implication it has weaker or fewer
> intermolcaular bonds. Furthermore, a lower melting point means it is more likely
> to melt, and has no bearing on whether it will burn or not. What you need to be
> looking at is the kinetic stability of the chocolate and the relative enthaly
> change occuring during combustion.


actually you should be comparing flakes to other chocolates but who's picking?

I will be forced to talk about cars and football and drink beer from bottles and fight.

Now that is frightening. GB becomes the average male.

Best stay as you are, I think.