this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2023
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Showerthoughts

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We have cars for earth, boats for water and planes for air. Nothing for fire. Not that I want to ride on fire.

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[–] [email protected] 60 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Dang indeed. That is crazy. Kudos to those firefighters!

Any pics of the outside of these trucks?

ETA: I found some. I guess theyre called brush trucks. Pretty much a BIG truck with firefighting accessories. How do the tires not melt? https://unruhfire.com/brush-trucks/

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

The vehicles used by bushfire (wildfires in Nth America) fighters are designed to drive through and survive fire.

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

[–] NoRodent 52 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Aren't rockets vehicles that ride on fire (that they create themselves)?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (3 children)

By that logic, anything that has an engine rides on fire

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Ok but the return capsule kinda rides on fire when it re-enters the atmosphere

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

The fire is at the vehicle’s boundary for a rocket, making the rocket a vehicle that rides on fire.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sooo steam engines ride on water?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Yes, and a hang glider rides on air.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Atmosphere re-entry capsules

[–] deus 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

And the Space Shuttle! (RIP)

[–] tacotroubles 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] Dasnap 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We all know those create fire, silly.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Only if you are Ray Bradbury.

[–] BradleyUffner 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] MrCharles 3 points 1 year ago

Came her to say this. Literally riding on the hot air from a big fire.

[–] Donebrach 20 points 1 year ago

We have rockets.

[–] uservoid1 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

So solid, liquid, gas, and missing plasma. You just need to have a really big bang and any of the other vehicles will do

[–] CADmonkey 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I have a vehicle that is powered by fire, does that count?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Technically you can have all the other vehicles for the remaining elements running on fire.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] CADmonkey 1 points 1 year ago

No, it's an old Suzuki Samurai. More of a box kite than a hot air balloon.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Solar sails are kind of like that

[–] spittingimage 1 points 1 year ago

We do call it solar wind, though.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Not that I want to ride on fire.

It'd be pretty bad ass to sail a boat through liquid hot magma. Uh... assuming the boat survived, I mean. Not so bad ass to take a wooden raft.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hot air balloon is probably your best bet for doing this

[–] XeroxCool 2 points 1 year ago

I'd say this one. It catches the product of fire and rides on it

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

firetrucks?

[–] partial_accumen 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Earth, water, air all have density. Meaning we can create a vehicle that can be lower destiny than the (Earth, water, air) our vehicle is riding in.

Fire doesn't have density. So we can't make a vehicle lighter than fire as fire has no density to begin with.

A rocket you say? Doesn't qualify. The rocket (when in the atmosphere) is providing lots of expanding gasses which creates a difference in air pressure pushing the vehicle forward. The rocket (when in the vacuum of space) is providing lots of expanding gasses at high velocities that we throw out of one side of the rocket causing the rocket to be thrown equally and oppositely the other direction. We have lots of engine in space which done have fire at all (nitrogen cold gas thrusters come to mind).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

While fire itself may not have mass or density, the materials involved in the fire (fuel and oxygen) do have density.

In the context of a rocket engine, the combustion process involves the ejection of high-speed exhaust gases, which have mass and therefore contribute to the overall density of the vehicle.

[–] partial_accumen 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We're in agreement on the physics of rocket propulsion. However, "fire" is essentially defined as a chemical oxidation reaction. The reaction itself doesn't have mass. While fuel and oxidizer undergo the oxidation reaction, it isn't the reaction itself providing the propulsion, its the mass and velocity of the combustion products.

This is why the "natural element" definition is old and out-of-date. Any discussion of "fire" as an element is a philosophical or literary exercise, not a scientific one.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think you nailed it - fire is not analogous to earth, wind, and water (and heart), so the premise of the post is confounded.

[–] spittingimage 2 points 1 year ago

I tried to imagine a vehicle for travelling on a surface of Heart, then decided I don't want to.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

What if the vehicle is made out of fire? 😏

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

ICE. We carry fire with us no matter where we go.

[–] snausagesinablanket 4 points 1 year ago

Ghost Rider enters the room.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Sounds like we need to gene splice minecraft striders into a reality.

[–] dukethorion 0 points 1 year ago

Fill a open trailer with wood and light it. Drive wherever. Dont drive too slow or it may catch up to you.