ELI5:What causes butane to burn at such high temperatures?

You say this isn't some "Look at me I'm right!" thing, so here, let me rewrite your original comment so it sounds like you actually care about OP's knowledge and education rather than playing the correction game to stroke your own ego.

"This is totally correct. The one thing I would clarify is that nothing burns without being a gas. That's just how it works. Even something solid like wood requires heat to first break down the material into smaller chemicals that can become gaseous so it can burn. Butane is already a gas and that makes it more flammable than any material that isn't a gas at room temperature/pressure. But that doesn't make it burn any hotter.

And here's a fun fact, when it comes to combustion as a chemical process, butane (and most organic substances) burn relatively coolly. That's because they produce water when they burn, and that severely limits how hot they can be. Metals, such as magnesium, easily burn two to three times hotter than a typical butane lighter."

It all in the words. Stating facts without explaining (like stating something has to be a gas to burn but not explaining how it works with solids like magnesium or wood) just makes you sound like you are needlessly correcting people without any desire to educate anybody. And I understand fusion is different from combustion. I was using my point to show how your wording made it sound like you were correcting me when it had nothing to do with anything I said.

Just keep in mind that answerers around here often hold back with their explanations so things really are kept simple, so calling them out by adding more detail to the answer usually isn't correcting them, it just adds more. So you should use words like "I would like to add ..." or "this is basically a good answer but I would clarify that ..." if you want to sound like you actually care about explaining anything to anyone. Assume people are being incomplete rather than wrong and then we will all sound supportive and not combative. Then it will truly be better for OP's knowledge.

/r/explainlikeimfive Thread