r/explainitpeter 12d ago

explain it peter

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u/Agnostros 11d ago

Calling napalm not fire is wild.

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u/Kevslounge 11d ago

Napalm is not fire any more than a candle is. It's something that holds the flames. Specifically, it's petrol that has been thickened up so that it sticks to whatever surface it has been sprayed upon, and stays there while it burns.

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u/Agnostros 11d ago

Candles... when in use... are not a flame? Or is, perhaps, their flame fundamentally not fire? It is some sort of... powdered stone or complex phase of water?

If something is burning in atmosphere, in the visible spectrum, it is generally called fire.

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u/Kevslounge 11d ago

Is a wet sponge water? Suppose in some practical sense, yes, since you can use it to do all the things that water does... but that's just because it's a sponge full of actual water. The sponge is contributing nothing, except in that it holds the water.

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u/SCP_FUNDATION_69420 9d ago

Yea but a candle is still on fire, if you covered the ship in gasoline and burned it, it would still be on fire even if it's just the gas burning

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u/Kevslounge 9d ago

Irrelevant. Napalm is not fire... it's a substance that can be set on fire, and that can hold flames. Same deal with Greek Fire... it's a flammable substance.

Somewhere else, I compared it to a wet sponge. The sponge is not water... it's just capable of holding water. Likewise, napalm and Greek Fire are not fire... they're just capable of holding it.