YES in 1979 the nursing where my mother was residing burn to the ground MY mother in law had a plastic crucifix on the wall of her bedroom and stayed intact I went to see the fire burning the building ; and when I was there the fire was rolling in balls in my mother in law room so ;; the heat must have been like ;; 3000 F I never understood why the crucifix did not melt to just a unrecognizable object Its like God saying ;; see what I can do What do you think
Depends. Was it actual plastic, or an alloy that looked similar to plastic? In that case you're either crazy or stupid. Or both!
God uses all that power to defy the laws of physics in order to preserve a worthless chunk of plastic, meanwhile not using his magic powers to save starving Africans? Your god really sucks if that's how he behaves.
Must have been 3000F out of assumption? Plastics are not all the same and don't all have the same melting point. Other factors could easily be involved and a fire does not mean all things will destroyed...chances are other items may have made it through as well? Churches burn down sometimes, other people loose religious heirlooms in their own fires. Somehow I doubt a plastic cross managing to not be destroyed is all that significant, though if this is one of those things a person wants to keep the magic of it alive in their mind then I don't suggest asking for explanations for this sort of thing.
All plastics are polymers (but not the other way around). There are a zillion different plastics, and a wide range of melting temperatures for them. Some don't melt, but actually suffer decomposition at higher temperatures because their molecular structure won't permit them to melt. Unfortunately, the question is so broad that not much more can be said. PVC, polyvinyl chloride, melts at 212 °C (about 414 °F). Teflon, which we use to coat cookware, is polytetrafluoroethene - PTFE, and it melts at 327 °C (about 621 °F). Whatever plastic that was made out of, probably had a high melting point, if it had one at all
