Timeline for The Properties of Flaming Fire Magic
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
6 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 2, 2020 at 1:34 | comment | added | SRM | @AlexP But what I’m saying is the caster doesn’t have enough energy to split an atom. Sure, if they had that energy, use it directly. But that’s an immense amount of energy. Magic subs that out. Some small amount of magic — cantrip level — is all that is needed to create flame. | |
| Jan 2, 2020 at 0:07 | comment | added | AlexP | All I'm saying is that a very small fraction of the amount of energy required to split oxygen nuclei would do quite well to heat the air to the temperature of a flame... A flame is just very hot air, after all. | |
| Jan 1, 2020 at 23:47 | comment | added | SRM | @AlexP put another way: science needs lots of energy to split atoms. Magic doesn’t cost that much to do the same, for whatever reason. | |
| Jan 1, 2020 at 23:45 | comment | added | SRM | @AlexP I assume magic does things science can’t, like cheap fission. Like some sort of mechanical advantage. My usual approach to questions like these is to identify the physical effect that magic contributes that science cannot that does what the questioner wants. In this case, produce realistic flame from non-flammable source in a way consistent with chemistry. | |
| Jan 1, 2020 at 22:50 | comment | added | AlexP | Why not use the massive amount of energy required to split the oxygen atoms and use it directly to heat the air? The energy released by a chemical reaction is vastly inferior to the energy required to break the oxygen nucleus. | |
| Jan 1, 2020 at 22:00 | history | answered | SRM | CC BY-SA 4.0 |