Posts tagged fire
Years ago I read a letter in a magazine suggesting a method for reducing the fire risk in an enclosed environment such as a space shuttle. The idea was to reduce the oxygen concentration to the po...
I'm writing a sci-fi world where, if you put it in simple words, a small percentage of population can manipulate the matter. I'm not going to dive into specifics, because I'm still working on WHY a...
I'm currently working on something where breechloading rifles and cartridge shot are developed very quickly over matchlocks and flintlocks. What major technological hurdles need to be overcome for...
In a world that takes place during the Victorian era (1837-1901), how effective would period-accurate firearms be against something similar to a dinosaur? As a brief aside, I will accept weaponry f...
The present day atmosphere is roughly 21% oxygen. Historically high-levels might have been as much as 35%, over 66% higher. This made the carboniferous a period of giant bugs and constant devastati...
So me and my buddy are currently working on a story that takes place on a different earth-like planet similar to when dinosaurs like Brachiosaurus inhabit the landscape. A few differences is that t...
I've got an intelligent, stone-age species that looks a bit like an Azhdarchid pterosaur. It is around the size of a large eagle. They have a proboscis and a finger on each wing used for manipulati...
So, in this generic fantasy setting, where magic is technology, I have trouble regarding adventurers. To avoid rolling up a new character every time, adventurers are rebuilt shortly after death at...
I have a pair of survivors living in a trailer (18-wheeler's trailer) and they have found about 3 pounds of cigarette butts and have decided to burn them for warmth. What would happen to these two?...
Okay, so, how does magic work? Magic, at the end of the day, is a swarm of tiny machines (hardly visible to the naked eye, but still within the 10-100 micrometer range) that carry out a task. Indi...
The setting I have in mind is an Earth-similar planet which has most of its landmass covered in forests. A civil conflict on this planet ingnites forests fires, which then spread. I was wondering i...
Gunpowder, also known as black powder, is some nasty stuff. It's extremely corrosive, it produces large amounts of obstructive grit and fouling, and using it creates a cloud of obscuring smoke. So...
To have a fire you need three things: oxygen, heat and flammable material, therefore the cold vacuum of space is the last place you would expect something to burn. I was, however, wondering if a ve...
I've plans for somewhat 'realistic' (and that's already quite a stretch of the word) superhuman characters whose muscles have the strength, density, and tensile strength that can stop most low-powe...
The direction of the force will always be perpendicular to velocity and pointing to the opposite side of the rotation direction. In plain terms, any object traveling in the rotation plane: up (t...
I was hypothesizing an organism that could create it's own fire with the use of a flamethrower-like organ. I was thinking that this animal has a oxygen-free organ that hold diethylzinc and when the...
My method of breathing fire involves humans stomachs producing ethane or methane and them holding a lit flame near their faces and just breathing out of burping . Fire breathing in this is mo...
Eureka! Our hero just discovered the secret of time travel, but what to do with it? "I know!", he says. "I will travel back in time as far as I can and hand them a modern firearm. They will learn h...
I am thinking about a game where people will shoot out in space, with different features. However, an integral part of the game is no spraying/spamming bullets. I don't want to have it in a fantasy...
I was curious: Suppose we built an O'Neill cylinder with an air mixture similar to Earth's (not pure oxygen). Does the air also get "thrown" down towards the floor of an O'Neill cylinder? If I sta...
Biologically speaking, what would be the best real world explanation for a pyro, torch, fire-starter type mutation. Leeching heat energy from the environment might freeze dry your surroundings. G...
Fire is certainly high up on the top ten list of mankinds most useful inventions. It allows for a more efficient utilisation of nutriants, is the basis of chemistry and the material sciences, allow...
Little side project on fantasy story with dragons (or wyverns to be exact, but they're equivalent for the purpose). I have dragons roaming the country side, laying waste and ruin in their wake. As...
A world idea I'm playing with for a sci-fi idea I'm working on has an atmosphere similar to the composition of Earth's atmosphere during the Carboniferous Period: Lots of oxygen, so while a human o...
What happens when two flames (whether from dragons or blowtorches) meet head on? Many films make it appears as a front where the two flames repel each other, but my intuition is that, in fact, the ...
I'm designing three guns here: a two-handed rifle, a two-handed shotgun, and a one-handed handgun. All of them are breechloader guns, so they can only shoot once before reloading. The goals I want...
If I were to build a world like Game of Thrones, how would the dragons not burn their own nostrils from the heat of flames?
Explanations for fire setting are easier to come by than explanations for fire resistance. Being able to set fires with nothing more than their hands, my 'fire-setters' need protection from the fla...
When the skies release a column of fire, the land around becomes a barren place... Can such phenomenon be explained with some rare, but "closely possible" circumstances? I don't think about ...
Is there such a thing as gasoline vapors, or some kind of gas that can be given off by gasoline? I'm trying to come up with a planet where the atmosphere is combustible and constantly catching on f...
The year is 2100. Internet 3.0 has arrived, with an ubiquitous Internet of Things. Even your wedding band has a fingerprint scanner to make sure it doesn't get stolen. An evil AI has been developed...
I'm building a fantasy world with a humanoid species (basically, "elves") which refuses to use dead wood. Context They don't use dead wood because they don't want to. Consider that trees are sac...
How would fire honey be useful and manageable to a beehive/bee colony? Info In this scenario, bees harvest nectar from a particular flower. The nectar is not only spicy from capsaicin, but litera...
I am including some dragons in the universe I'm building. Now, I have already decided that only baby dragons will fly, but I am having some problems with breathing fire. My current design: Dragons...
So Chlorine Trifluoride is a very dangerous chemical known to burn through things like concrete and asbestos. It's so bad that the Nazis, THE NAZIS, decided it was too dangerous to use. So I need a...
I have a creature (a cat person) that wants to set its own fists/claws on fire, because it attacks via its fists/claws, and is fighting enemies that are fairly flammable. What can this creature do...
(Warning: do not try this at home-system) Preamble Hello humans, we need advice. Let's say we have just successfully defeated and killed a Horror From Beyond Reason who happened to be multiple t...
So I have this character, that has been interred in a bronze statue for a thousand or so years. I need to be able to quickly melt, or get rid of the bronze so he can be released in front of my main...
Is it possible to have plants that wouldn't burn? Having the plant getting damaged by fire is fine, but I want the plant not to burn at all. It does not need to survive, it just must not catch fir...
This question is connected to: Fire Resistant Flora I've been pondering a short story concept where a scientific expedition discovered a planet with a huge amount of both free hydrogen and oxygen ...
How Long could an "Eternal" Fire last? At some point there is a fire very spiritually important to a certain people - so important that they build a city around it, and begin developing an empire ...
In a "mountains and valleys" type area, there is a very large fire (say, an acre or two) that generates a lot of smoke. Where would the wind be strong enough and constant enough in this type of ge...
Is an alien lifeform covering itself comfortably in flames as a defense mechanism to wane off predators possible? I've heard of microbes surviving the extreme condition of outer space in complete v...
My creature is a 'chimera', so it is a combination of a few different animals. As a defense (or an offense) mechanism, it can coat itself in a flammable oil and self ignite. I would prefer to refer...
If one forest fire couldn't be contained and it spread across the world how long do you think it would take for 90% of the world to catch on fire, burn, and then burn out? Also, while the world wa...
Since fire doesn't burn under water aquatic alien sophonts will use alternative technologies. The question is, which alternatives to fire can they use? I am interested in all aspects of fire, (hea...
I'm creating a world with different oxygen density, about 15%. When given same fuel and air pressure, how will the fire burn up in this 15% oxygen density atmosphere compared to our world? And the ...
Question inspired by discussion under this answer: https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/a/70360/2071 Dear people of Proxima Centauri. Our planet is dying. Our suns are dying. As you all know. W...
I can understand that all animals would instinctively stay away from a fire, however for a fire breathing dragon to be warded off by torches seem puzzling to me. What could help explain such ironic...
I have an idea for a story in a post-apocalyptic setting where guns and other explosive devices unusable or otherwise impractical. Is it possible to do this by changing the atmosphere (either by a...
