cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/28135065
Source: https://safelyendangered.com/blogs/comics/birthday-dragon
Hmm yes for a dragon I believe the candles should start unlit.
this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2025
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Thoughts: If the dragon's normal breath is fire, is means that their internal temperature is not low enough to cool down candlewicks. This is not much different than how human breath is warmer from the envionment. Form the perspective of, say, a lichen, a human's breath might as well be fire. Dragons are just run 10x as hot as humans. The question is, what material are they consuming in order to maintain this temperature constantly. Are they consuming coal as food?
They horde metals, and it is not out of question that it's likely their food source. Ingest enough:
- Nickel, and the hydrochloric acid in your stomach will start producing Hydrogen gas
- Silver, and nitric acid (let's just assume they have an organ for that) is explosive
- Gold, and any organ that produces ammonia will produce "fulminating gold", an explosive purple compound that triggers on light exposure.
I've gone 41 years now without once considering what a dragons diet consists of. Then you come in here like "HEY GUYS!!! SCIENCE!!! Also what do dragons eat?"
And now I'll forever be pissed off that it becomes an answer with no wrong answer, and no right answer. Only unproven theories with varying levels of absurdity. You say he eats coal. Maybe I say they eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Your answer makes sense. My answer isn't wrong, and thus still valid.
And with that comes an open invitation to come up with the dumbest answer possible, knowing it can never be wrong. No matter how wrong it is.
Sounds to me like you lost your mind about this.
NGL, I'm low-key goading the science dweebs among us to find the most efficient/plausible scientific explanation for all this fantasy nonsense. We have to find the dragon diet that would support the version of dragons that routinely exhales superheated air (as opposed to having an extra chamber of chemicals they ignite on demand), while still maintaining other dragon tropes.
I was going to mention Reign of Fire until I saw your parenthetical insert.
Guess I'll go back to my physics-based MMO.
Any food gives energy, so you can either eat some which is packed with chemical burn value (oil/coal/peat...) or just eat a lot of "normal valued" food like humans. Third option is they have really good processing and insulation (humans dump most again because it takes to long to process).
Yes which is why I don't think eating a lot of "normal" food would cause this. The amount of having to eat to cause this amount of heat would probably be 100x more than required for their body size, which means that they would never stop eating. I think it's more likely they consume something itself highly combustible like oil. Or maybe they're doing internal fission :D
Not necessary, we it body spend a lot of effort to cool and we do a lot of other stuff. If a dragon is sleeping mostly he doesn't need so much. Also you don't need any energy to maintain temperature. You just need enough to compensate for what you use. So let's say they mostly sleep and have really good insulation, they are fine. Or just sleep in a pit of lava.
Cold fusion sounds also feasible, given it's a mystical creature.
"Creme Brulee, anyone?"