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[lucusLoC]

i am not sure of what it is called, but my understanding of the process goes like this: alcohol vaporizes at a lower temperature than gasoline, so a burning puddle of alcohol burns faster and releases more heat *in a given time frame* than a burning puddle of gasoline, therefore it burns hotter. it also burns faster as the reaction rate of alcohols oxidation is faster than that of gasoline under identical conditions (that's the the splitting thing i mentioned earlier. if you really care you could double check that, i am not 100% sure if the claim is correct).

now the total energy released is more for gasoline (which is what it seems you are talking about), but the alcohol releases its energy faster under identical open air conditions.

i am also assuming units measured in volume, not weight, you appear to be talking about weight when making your assumptions.

and yes, all ethanol has the same energy density, i was talking about the various other forms of alcohol. drinking alcohols are also going to have different energy densities based on their percentage of alcohol of course.

in short, alcohol: lower energy density, releases it faster, so burns hotter for shorter.
gasoline: higher energy density, releases it slower so burns cooler for longer.

again, assuming a burning puddle on the ground. aerosolizing it is a different story entirely.

also, i may be completely wrong on this, i am doing it off the top of my head from high school chemistry. that was a while ago.

[G-Flex]

i am also assuming units measured in volume, not weight, you appear to be talking about weight when making your assumptions.

I looked up their densities and ethanol is a bit more dense, but not by an outrageous amount.

and yes, all ethanol has the same energy density, i was talking about the various other forms of alcohol.

Yeah, but that's completely irrelevant since we're only talking about about ethanol here. It's not like you have methyl or isopropyl varieties in alcoholic beverages.

in short, alcohol: lower energy density, releases it faster, so burns hotter for shorter.
gasoline: higher energy density, releases it slower so burns cooler for longer.

In theory, I understand what you're saying, but I'm still not sure. Alcohol has always seemed relatively benign (as far as flammable substances are concerned): You can pretty easily burn it on a counter (or even on your hands, if you're careful), whereas I just don't see that working out very well with gasoline.

Of course, a pool of gasoline can be more difficult than people would think to ignite. Dropping a lit cigarette butt into a trail of gasoline won't do what it does on The A-Team.

[lucusLoC]

alcohol as a very high evaporation rate compared to most other liquids. this actually means that things under it stay relatively cool, even when it is burning because instead of transferring heat through it just evaporates faster (kind of like a double boiler). you can easily burn gasoline on a counter or on your hand as well, but its higher thermal conductivity (due to its less evaporative nature) means that much more of the heat will be conducted through to the underlying surface. i believe alcohol actually is more volatile than gasoline, but maybe i have it wrong.

you have already put in more effort to this than i have, since i am gong completely off of memory here, and my memory is quite unreliable.

i think a definitive test would be to take a glass of ethanol and a glass of gasoline and see which one burns off faster. you would think someone has tried that already. . . .

[Ze Spy]

congratulations , we have just derailed this thread , badly

[Morrigi]

I blame the fluffy wamblers. Their feeping fluffiness has damaged the minds of us forumgoers giving us all ADD.

[Ze Spy]

thats why i prefer two newbies who make stupid fortresses , then 5 fourmgoers who give up after some time and make hell-fortresses

anyway , back on topic

a molotov would require glass , a cloth , some booze , and something that sets things on fire? you cant create a field of fire by just throwing a cloth in a wooden booze barrel and throw it

[G-Flex]

congratulations , we have just derailed this thread , badly

How is it derailed?

The thread is about exploding drinks. I said exploding drinks are infeasible (or pointless), and someone argued the point a bit. Gasoline was talked about in comparison to booze because we know you can use that in improvised explosive weapons.

Of course, the fact that dwarven booze is mostly water is going to make it infeasible anyway. Whoops.

[Morrigi]

congratulations , we have just derailed this thread , badly

How is it derailed?

The thread is about exploding drinks. I said exploding drinks are infeasible (or pointless), and someone argued the point a bit. Gasoline was talked about in comparison to booze because we know you can use that in improvised explosive weapons.

Of course, the fact that dwarven booze is mostly water is going to make it infeasible anyway. Whoops.

Um, they're DWARVES! Come on...

[G-Flex]

I like how we've been trying to talk about whether or not this actually makes sense, and your contributions have consisted of a joke about fluffy wamblers and a reference to some absurd community caricature of dwarves.

[xdarkcodex]

I like how we've been trying to talk about whether or not this actually makes sense, and your contributions have consisted of a joke about fluffy wamblers and a reference to some absurd community caricature of dwarves.

^ What he said ^

[Pilsu]

The game has underground flora that presumably gets it's energy out of geothermal heat. Magma vents house snakes and various other critters made of meat. Magma can be used for forging and is generally safe to be around. I think it's safe to say that alcohol not actually being explosive needn't stop us if it's deemed to be a flavorful, fun addition.

[G-Flex]

There are a lot of quirky things about the game that aren't currently realistic due to pressing gameplay concerns, therefore there's no reason to expect anything in the game to ever make sense or be reasonable despite Toady obviously wanting it to; clearly, we should be able to smelt iron out of teeth.

[Pilsu]

The only thing that might be a placeholder is the lack of convection. All of the other things are deliberate and completely ludicrous in realism terms. Your point is moot.

[groo]

I am noticing a tendency for there to be too much Science in this forum and not enough Fun.