Timeline for Can the Wall be melted?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
22 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Apr 12, 2014 at 13:05 | comment | added | TLP | @MichaelBorgwardt Its certainly a record in these tags! | |
| Apr 11, 2014 at 4:01 | comment | added | James Christopher | @MichaelBorgwardt - But you got that many votes in just one day, though! | |
| Apr 11, 2014 at 1:47 | comment | added | sjl | But does magic ice have the same heat of fusion as mundane ice? | |
| Apr 10, 2014 at 22:34 | comment | added | JohnP | "in practice, efficiency would be lower". Yes, because you'd be relying on radiant sideways heat unless you build a tunnel under the wall to house the fire. Heat travels up, so you'd probably be getting about 30% efficiency as a WAG out of the fire, so quadruple your requirements. (Or more, as a fire will lose heat as it consumes itself). | |
| Apr 10, 2014 at 21:31 | comment | added | System Down | @MichaelBorgwardt - Well we have our marching orders then! ****starts coding SE voting bots**** | |
| Apr 10, 2014 at 21:03 | comment | added | Michael Borgwardt | @TLP: it's not even in the top 50, highest voted answer on Scifi.SE is scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/1520/… | |
| Apr 10, 2014 at 20:36 | comment | added | TLP | Holy shlt, 57 upvotes, gotta be a record | |
| Apr 10, 2014 at 15:09 | comment | added | Michael Borgwardt | @JeffGohlke: Thanks, I take that as a huge compliment :) | |
| Apr 10, 2014 at 14:21 | history | edited | Michael Borgwardt | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Apr 10, 2014 at 7:02 | comment | added | Michael Borgwardt | @JamesChristopher: correct, but I mentioned both of these points. It was really meant as a lower bound calculation. | |
| Apr 10, 2014 at 5:21 | vote | accept | Shevliaskovic | ||
| Apr 22, 2019 at 14:13 | |||||
| Apr 10, 2014 at 0:39 | comment | added | James Christopher | It would be alot more than you calculated, because, 1.) The ice is probably going to be colder than right around 0 C, and 2.) Most of the heat from the fire wont be focused sideways. Two thirds of the heat radiating sideways will be not at the wall, and most of the heat will be from the top of the fire. | |
| Apr 9, 2014 at 23:07 | comment | added | asteri | This reminded me so much of a what-if XKCD article. | |
| Apr 9, 2014 at 21:30 | comment | added | TLP | There is a point in the Wall being made of ice: The Others cannot use fire. | |
| Apr 9, 2014 at 19:11 | comment | added | RemcoGerlich | 2500 trees would also feels like it should be plenty of wood to build nice scaffolding and luxurious staircases on both sides of the well. | |
| Apr 9, 2014 at 18:12 | comment | added | Dacio | While that's very true, the point stands that a wall made of ice is much more vulnerable than if it were of a material with a higher melting point. The wall being 300 miles long, it is impossible to defend it all with the numbers the Watch has at its disposal. Being able to light a fire and escape before being discovered, thus wearing it down over time, is a serious flaw. Given the frequency of wildling raids, it seems the lack of fire attacks is a glaring omission, in hindsight, especially considering the usefulness of such a diversion before a main attack. | |
| Apr 9, 2014 at 17:19 | comment | added | Ilmari Karonen | @Dacio: I don't think you're quite appreciating what an enormous amount 35,000 tonnes of wood really is. We're talking about something like a stack of tree trunks maybe 50 meters (≈ 150 feet) high and 100 to 150 meters wide stacked against the wall -- taller than a 10-story building, and likely wider too. They'd have to clearcut a significant area of forest around the pile just to collect all that wood, and just gathering it all into a pile would be a major engineering effort in itself. Doable? Maybe, given enough time and workers. Easy? No way in hell. | |
| Apr 9, 2014 at 16:32 | comment | added | Dacio | @RobertF Perhaps true, but they also raid south of the wall fairly continuously. How much easier would that be with gaping holes in the wall? | |
| Apr 9, 2014 at 16:28 | comment | added | RobertF | @Dacio - I thought it was implied the Wildlings are content to dwell north of the wall, aside from the occasional raiding party which can scale the wall. Of course that changes when the White Walkers become a threat... | |
| Apr 9, 2014 at 16:20 | comment | added | Dacio | On the other hand, 2500 oak trees piled against the wall and set afire would be a threat the Watch would have to respond to, all the better for it to be on a remote section of the wall. Even if the only feasible response the watch has is to stand back and wait for the fire to extinguish itself from the wall runoff, they would have to guard the damaged section of the wall until repaired as well as clear away the piled up, sodden logs (so they don't dry out and just get re-lit). Given the ease of such a distraction, it's kind of a wonder the wildlings have let the wall stand for so long... | |
| Apr 9, 2014 at 14:39 | history | edited | Michael Borgwardt | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Apr 9, 2014 at 14:33 | history | answered | Michael Borgwardt | CC BY-SA 3.0 |