Welcome to the staging ground for new communities! Each proposal has a description in the "Descriptions" category and a body of questions and answers in "Incubator Q&A". You can ask questions (and get answers, we hope!) right away, and start new proposals.
Are you here to participate in a specific proposal? Click on the proposal tag (with the dark outline) to see only posts about that proposal and not all of the others that are in progress. Tags are at the bottom of each post.
What would be the best way to breathe for a creature that shoots fire from its mouth? Question
I've had an idea where there's this humanoid based life-form that has no real origin other than being found on some remote island. Kind of like skull island and seems be a complete anomaly in the natural world, supposedly being the only one of his kind.
Among his traits is that through complex systems of specialized organs that produce acetylene gas that gets pumped through a valve pipe in his throat with a bone like lighting mechanism to produce fire. Along with this he also has a little organ that is strictly used to produce oxygen that when pushed through another pipe valve in his throat generates a oxy-acetelyne (this is like the fuel for the fire) based stream and can't be used for additional breathing.
The problem while I was designing this creature is while I initially wanted him to have a set of standard nostrils above his mouth like any other life form, it occurred to me one day that the amount of fire and heat he'd be producing would definitely burn a good chunk of oxygen molecules in his path.
So now the problem I'm facing is would he be able to breathe properly with how much heat his fire is producing?
I have a few ideas on how to fix this issue, but that's only if the level of heat he produces actually has negative effects to the air he's breathing.
Now he does travel about from jungles to cities to open plains so I'm barring variables like ashes and embers and such, I'm really just looking to see if I need to fix the way he breathes when he does his fire attacks or if just having standard nostrils will be fine since even though biologically speaking he is an entity that requires suspension of disbelief he's still bound by basic physics.
In short:
- Known world physics
- Humanoid creature but a one-of-a-kind anomaly
- Able to create fire from organs
- What about the breathing process through nostrils?
- Asking for biological or conceptual inputs
2 answers
Spewing fire is done while exhaling. The same mechanisms that push air out of the lungs push the acetylene out too, when the creature wants to. Since this is mutually exclusive with inhaling, there shouldn't be much of a problem.
The overall effect would be very similar to a circus performer doing "fire breathing". They usually inhale propane or similar, then ignite it just outside the mouth when exhaling. In this case, they actually breathed in the flammable gas, so lost even more breathing capacity than your creature. They can't do this continually, of course, but that's not much of a limitation. Your creature would need some time to produce more acetylene anyway.
Another separate point is that producing oxygen and combining that with the acetylene inside is a bad idea, and unnecessary anyway. There is plenty of oxygen available in the air. All the creature needs to do is provide the acetylene and an ignition source. With the fire therefore always outside the body, things become much safer, easier to implement, and require significantly less energy to produce.
1 comment thread
I suggest some modes to pick in order to adjust the breathing. Some of which can be combined:
Can just breathe normally: This would solely be based on the assumption that the whole organism is resistant to fire and well adapted so the nose/nostrils, lungs, etc. are also able to withstand high temperatures. In this case the creature would not suffer any restrictions.
Closing the nostrils while fire breathing: This is like if a land dwelling animal dives into water where it cannot breathe. Your creature is supposed to be heat resistant, so it does not take damage from own fire on the outside. Closing the nostrils thus seems to be a sensible way to do in order to protect the lungs from the incoming hot air.
This implies it would not take in air/breathe while using the fire ability. This might be shortening the fire breathing duration in unwanted ways maybe? Therefore:
Creature size and blood storing oxygen: Larger animals living on land but are apt divers (sea lions, manatees, hippos, crocodiles and so on) have the ability to store more oxygen in the blood than an average human can. This is the same principle that enables whales to dive about one or two hours without breathing air (therefore my question about size: The larger the animal the more plausible it gets to store more oxygen).
This could be combined with the "closing nostrils" suggestions, if the lungs are not supposed to be fire resistant.
Fire ignites a little away from the head: To further protect the head and other organs from the hot fire you can modify the organs so they are able to "spray" the fuel out of the mouth essentially. The ignition takes place a little retarded so the actual fire cone is not in touch with any of the body. Maybe this is achieved by splitting the organs in a way that the final mixture of fuel is only created when sprayed outside the body into and coming in contact with the air. "Some" chemical compound can then account for the retarded ignition.
1 comment thread
2 comment threads