Questions tagged [fire]
For questions about byproduct of the combustion of materials.
170 questions
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Fire in a Hydrogen Atmosphere
In my world (described further in my question How Would Wind be Different in a Hydrogen Atmosphere) plants build biomass by this reaction (where hv is light energy):
$CH_{4}$ + $H_{2}O$ + $hv$ → $CH_{...
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Implications on moon with extreme oxygen content
I’m working on a speculative evolution project where there’s a Europa like moon with a subsurface ocean. This moon recently (about 50 million years ago) came into a habitable range around a k type ...
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Could a hydrophobic animal that drinks petroleum evolve on a desert planet?
I'm creating a sci-fi story with strange lifeforms. One such lifeform are the Inferni. The Inferni are quadrupeds who are great tunnelers. Inferni drink oil and other hydrocarbons for sustenance ...
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How humid does it have to be for flamethrowers to start experiencing problems?
I'm writing a setting where the use of flamethrowers is 'reasonably pervasive' both for warfare and the clearing away of foilage and shrubbery. I'm not sure how much in-universe context I need to ...
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What would be a potential way to completely wipe all humans from Earth while still rendering it somewhat habitable? [duplicate]
I would prefer if it was something fire related, as it lines up best with my story. The current candidate is a beam from a quasar, but it seems to be too powerful and far away to work. I don't need ...
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How can a vehicle-mounted flamethrower be made hot enough to melt metal?
Flamethrowers have been a part of warfare for a long time, although they have been phased out now due to safety issues and assorted flaws. Several vehicle-mounted flamethrowers have been designed, ...
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In a world with magic that can be used to create fireballs cast from a persons hands, could setting off a fireball underwater create temporary oxygen?
My character in my story can wield magic, and this includes creating fireballs she can shoot from her hands. In one chapter, she falls into the ocean and is struggling to reach the surface again. ...
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How far above a forest fire or conflagration would you need to be, to not burn alive?
I write fantasy. One of my main characters is kinda like a D&D druid with plantgrowth. He can magically will plants to grow with photosythesis.
He can for example get trees to grow really quickly, ...
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How would an ancient Chinese necromancer keep his skeletons burning?
During the Xi dynasty of Ancient China, Zhang Xianzhong accidentally gained the power to animate and control the dead by supernaturally puppeteering the corpses like extremely sophisticated ...
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If a 'fire temple' was built in a gigantic city, with many huge perpetual flames inside, how could they keep smoke from bothering non-worshippers?
This temple I'm imagining is in a massive and fairly densely packed city. Technically all manner of magic is available and I could answer "they use a spell to get rid of the smoke" but I'm ...
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Will fire still burn well in my atmosphere?: concentration vs partial pressure
I recently learned from this article that flammability in oxygenated environments is far more dependent on the concentration of the Oxygen in the air rather than the partial pressure of the Oxygen.
In ...
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Natural mechanism behind burning oceans
I have an alternate Earth with no humans where massive patches of the oceans are supposed to be burning. The fires do not come from artificial or man-made causes. The flames themselves:
have lasted ...
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Fully electric flamethrower
Flamethrower and other incendiary weapons often use several liters of fuel and due to this they are easy targets and dead weight in an army. Additionally flamethrowers that use fuel have limited uses. ...
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Fire-analog on an ammonia planet
I am currently building a planet that weighs about 4 earth masses and it's radius is 2.3 times larger than that of earth's. It is an ammonia planet (as the title suggests), and has ammonia oceans with ...
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How would fire behave in an oxygenless atmosphere with a significant percentage of chlorine?
I’m mostly interested in chlorine since (as far as I understand) it’s the most viable, but I’m open to others as well (if it’s worth it).
I’ve been working with a sort of “worldbuilding challenge” on-...