In these cases, students seemed to be applying a rule that combustion always produces carbon dioxide and/or water: they did not connect the production of CO2 and H2O to hydrocarbon combustion (i.e., a reactant that contains the requisite atoms of the products: hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen). read more
No. Combustion is the rapid chemical combination of a substance with oxygen, involving the production of heat and light. For instance aluminum, in powder form, can be burned with iron oxide providing the oxygen with impressive heat producing aluminum oxide and (molten) iron. read more