system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: What is acid, and how can it "burn" things into almost nothing?

My knowledge of acids are very limited: All i really know, is that it has to do with the value of the PH-scale.
gpt
Acids are compounds that provide hydrogen ions when in solution.  Since a hydrogen molecule is just a proton plus an electron, a hydrogen ion is really just a proton.

These unattached protons are like groupies backstage at a rock concert, willing to make attachments with anything they encounter, whether they were previously attached or not.   If you have enough of them, especially in high concentration, they will break down existing substances as they destroy the molecular bonds in those substances.

They don't turn other substances into "nothing"; they just produce what are usually soluble salts, as opposed to the solids that were there before.  So, like the Wicked Witch of the West, those solids turn into liquid and melt away.