Why doesn't it work if i set the display to inline?

Question

See this code: https://code.sololearn.com/WIsgXtc8U7ua/?ref=app
When i set the display to inline in line 16 the transform doesn't work.
But after setting it to inline-block it worked.
But what's the logic?

Answer 1

probably inline element is not transformable element

https://drafts.csswg.org/css-transforms-1/

"all elements whose layout is governed by the CSS box model except for non-replaced inline boxes, table-column boxes, and table-column-group boxes [CSS2]"

Answer 2

Dunno.
https://www.sololearn.com/discuss/2253278/?ref=app