Combustion

[emmaferry2D]

I got a little confused during the lecture when Lavelle began explaining how combustion, burning and oxidation are similar in their products. Would someone be able to explain this to me?

[Madison Wong 3H]

I think it also has something to do with oxygen as one of the reactants for oxidation and combustion

[Helena Xu 3L]

I think that Dr. Lavelle was explaining that combustion, burning, and oxidation are similar because they all release energy. Burning is another word for combustion and combustion is a type of oxidation reaction. Hope this helps!

[Alara Aygen 3K]

Hi, combustion is a type of oxidation reaction. In other words, combustion of an organic molecule means that, that organic molecule is reacting with oxygen [it is also called 'burning' or 'oxidation' ]. So, O2 must be in the reactants side and these reactions usually result in CO2 and H20. Hope that helps.

[manisha_joseph_1H]

I think Dr. Lavelle was trying to explain how combustion, burning, or oxidation undergo a similar chemical reaction. For instance, in all of them, some sort of burning is taking place in the presence of oxygen. This then leads to the releasing of products, such as carbon dioxide and water, which I believe is most common in the case of all three. I hope this was helpful!

[JTieu_1L]

He associates this type of chemical reaction that involves, O2 as one of the reactants and CO2 and H2O as the products, to the words "combustion, burning, and oxidation". So if in a question you see any of those three words, you would know how to write the chemical reaction.

[Vince Li 2A]

Yeah, I agree with nearly everything that has been mentioned. Combustion and burning always involves some type of hydrocarbon that is burned in O2 to always form CO2 and H20. In order to balance the chemical, you would have to look at the further information provided in the question. An example reaction would be: CH4 + 2O2 ---> CO2 + 2H2O.

[Veeda Khan 2E]

Adding to what everyone has said above, combustion always requires a compound with Carbon and Hydrogen to make CO2 and H2O as products. If the compound is missing one or both of those elements, it can't combust.

[Inderpal Singh 2L]

I believe he was trying to make a point that not only do combustion, burning and oxidation have to do with the addition of O2 gas but that these types of reactions are exothermic. Exothermic means that the reaction is releasing energy.

[Katie Le 3K]

I think he was saying that those processes have similar reactions. For example, I believe they all involve O2 as a reactants and CO2 and H2O as the product.

[Lorraine Jiang 2C]

I think Dr.Lavelle was giving us multiple examples of combustion. That includes the combustion of butane (which was the example), burning (of calories when we exercise), as well as oxidation. They all have similar reactions and they all release energy. For exmaple, combustion of butane requires oxygen and it produces carbon dioxide and water. Similar to Burning, when we intake food (carbohydrates, for example), we also breathe in oxygen, and when we exercise we turn them into carbon dioxide and water (we breathe them out).

Hope it helps!

[Funmi Baruwa]

Combustion, burning and oxidation are all the same thing! During an oxidation reaction, oxygen is loss and energy is released. The same thing happens during combustion and burning. This is why it is referred to as an EXOthermic reaction. Exo meaning something is released. I hope this helps :)

[Jiapeng Han 1C]

Combustion is essentially a oxidation reaction because you use "oxygen" to burn something--to oxidize something. However, with regard to burning, you don't necessarily have to use oxygen. You just need to make something burn--a lot of chemicals can burn things.

[Moura Girgis 1F]

I think that, in addition to all the previous comments, Dr. Lavelle could have been referring to the fact that in all these reactions, the products tend to be in a gaseous state.

[Izamary Marquez 2H]

In a combustion reaction, when C burns in the presence of O, why is CO2 always a product? And same with H20? Is there a specific reason why this occurs?