system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5:Why does a car burnout make white smoke, but a burning tire makes black smoke?
gpt
A tire on fire is at a much higher temperature than one burning out. The higher temp allows the molecules that make up the tire break apart further creating more particles of more or less pure carbon. Carbon absorbs light and as a result appears dark, like charcoal. In fact exactly like charcoal since it is mostly made of carbon. The dark color comes from all of the elemental carbon molecules that are in the smoke. The white smoke contains longer chains of molecules, including water in a lot of cases, that react to light differently, scattering and reflecting it, so it appears more white or light gray.