The nonequilibrium flow of an ideal dissociating gas past a convex corner is studied. Linearized theory based on the undisturbed flow is reexamined, and it is shown that it does not give a good quantitative description of the variation of flow quantities along the wall, even for relatively small corner angles. The apparent agreement between the results of linear theory and characteristics solutions reported in earlier work is shown to be due to an ambiguous definition of the characteristic relaxation time. It is only when a characteristic relaxation time based on downstream conditions, rather than upstream conditions, is used in the linearized theory that the results agree reasonably with the numerical calculations. The modified linear theory is used to calculate the increase in entropy along the wall, and it is shown that normal gradients in entropy exist even far downstream of the corner. The calculated increase in entropy along the wall is related explicitly to the asymptotic wall values of the other flow variables, and these values are shown to be different from the infinite‐reaction‐rate equilibrium values. The calculated asymptotic values are in good agreement with those obtained from numerical calculations.