chczdc

Air is cheap to warm.

Water in fuel is expensive

Not an expert. Just a random guy thinking out loud.

To burn you have to dry out the fuel matter and warm it up to its combustion T.

If the air is -50, the fire has to give up enough enthalpy to not just dry up and warm up the wood, but also melt the water in the fuel. That energy cost is huge.

That cold air is dense won’t come close to overcoming the enthalpy of melting and having to dry the fuel.

Also that the air is “dry” is irrelevant at -50C. The air is dry because it can’t hold onto moisture so it won’t dry out the fuel. Also, the water in the fuel is frozen so even if the air was relatively dry there would still be a huge kinetic barrier to sublimation.

The Japanese blow my mind sometimes. Their attention to detail, their uncompromising attitude to everything they do.

My point was to have some light fun at the optimism of ppl who think that all that’s needed to do the impossible is enough profit motivation:

“The first to break c gets infinite profit! Ready, set go!”

Infinite profit, in fact, since the information would be traveling backwards in time.