fire challenge/problem/riddle

[SuperBeaverInc.]

Originally posted by WillJ
But how exactly do you start the fire? Are there sticks?

I would also like to know this. When this riddle was first posted it said:

Given you only have the clothes on your back.
How do you survive?

If you only have the clothes on your back, then how would you start a fire without matches, lighter, a magnifying glass etc.?

 

[sysyphus]

Friction baby! And LOTS of it!

It's a pretty difficult thing to do, but remember that at one time it was the only way to make fire, and they did it.

 

[WillJ]

Originally posted by sysyphus
Friction baby! And LOTS of it!

It's a pretty difficult thing to do, but remember that at one time it was the only way to make fire, and they did it.

Yeah, but they used sticks and stones, right? As Beaver pointed out, you only have the clothes on your back. I fail to see how you can start a fire with only clothes and body parts. That is, unless we can assume that there are some sticks on the island.

 

[Double Barrel]

Maybe you are a cigarette smoker? Of course, you would then have a lighter or a book of matches!

 

[sysyphus]

Originally posted by WillJ
Yeah, but they used sticks and stones, right? As Beaver pointed out, you only have the clothes on your back. I fail to see how you can start a fire with only clothes and body parts. That is, unless we can assume that there are some sticks on the island.

You also have access to what is on the ground. I think that it is a fair assumption that among the items on the ground there is something that could be used to start a fire.

As a matter of fact, there is already a source of fire on the island, it is what put us in this little predicament in the first place.

 

[Mojotronica]

Originally posted by Double Barrel
Maybe you are a cigarette smoker? Of course, you would then have a lighter or a book of matches!

And they have the nerve to say smoking is "unhealthy..." Ha!

 

[DvR]

Don't need matches if there's a fire heading your way... Assuming you run alot faster than the fire spreads, I'd say you have to run to the east, take your clothes off, set em on fire, run back west and somewhere halfway back you set the bushes on fire with your burning clothes.

 

[onejayhawk]

Building a break fire like this is tricky. Since the wind is pushing the fire toward you, you have place it so that the updraft from the main fire outpulls the wind, so that the break fire is drawn to the mainfire. If you get the spacing wrong, you just accelerated tha main fire's advance. It's the only answer, but difficult to pull off.

J

PS To those that wonder how to sart the break fire, uh, take a piece of the big one.

 

[WillJ]

Originally posted by sysyphus
As a matter of fact, there is already a source of fire on the island, it is what put us in this little predicament in the first place.

Unless lightning started the fire.

Originally posted by DvR
Assuming you run alot faster than the fire spreads, I'd say you have to run to the east, take your clothes off, set em on fire, run back west and somewhere halfway back you set the bushes on fire with your burning clothes.

And just how do you go about carrying burning clothes without getting hurt?

 

[Narz]

Nice thread Alex, got any more of these?

 

[Renata]

@ willJ -- tie and twist them up really tight, they'll burn slower. Of course, if you're not into natural fibers, all they'll do is melt on you. Or you could break off some decent-sized sticks from the scrub that's all around you and use that as a torch.

@ jayhawk -- the solution was to build the fire to the west of you, not the east of you. If you built them far enough apart, and they each have the same amount of fuel to burn, the wind should push them at a similar speed and you can just stay in between, eventually following the western fire onto the now-cleared ground it's already burned.

Cool riddle.

Renata

 

[WillJ]

Originally posted by Narz
Nice thread Alex, got any more of these?

These might not be what you're looking for, but:

Riddle

Riddles

Riddle

Riddles

Riddles II

Originally posted by Renata
@ willJ -- tie and twist them up really tight, they'll burn slower.

Ah, I see.