Why are burns due to chemicals or intense cold also called “burns”? What do they have in common with the regular burns due to fire or heat?

Question

Not sure whether to flair this as biology or physics, but any idea why?

In: Biology

Answer 1

A burn is a result of “denaturing” the proteins of skin. Like when you cook an egg, the strands of proteins that are liquid scrunch and kink up on a microscopic level, and cannot be returned to their previous state. You can “cook” an egg with alcohol.

The same happens when you get a burn whether it’s from heat or from exposure to a corrosive substance.