How Many Dragons Would It Take to Melt the Wall in Game of Thrones? (Because Science w/ Kyle Hill)

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Game of Thrones has many signature aspects, but dragons and the giant wall are the most iconic of the fire and ice of the story, but which one is stronger? Kyle melts it down on this week's Because Science!
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Artist: Andrew Bowser
Learn more:
• CALCULATIONS: bit.ly/2sQH9uA
• ENTHALPY OF FUSION: nerdi.st/1XyF0wS
• ENERGY DENSITY: bit.ly/2ueZeG2
• M1A1 FLAMETHROWER: bit.ly/2uSB4PG
• THE WALL DIMENSIONS: bit.ly/2tJ5LrS
• PEOPLE ON FIRE RECORD: bit.ly/2tNyJ8q
• GOT FLAME THROWER: bit.ly/2vdujY8

[@Nerdist]

Game of Thrones' dragons aren't actually dragons. NEW mini-ep over on my Insta (instagram.com/sci_Phile/). Thanks for watching! -- KH

[@seancarlisi]

would the oil in the gasoline or if it was diesel instead affect the MJ/Kg produced by the fuel. The flame throwers they are compared to usually verried depending on what was available.

[@borttormcpe4275]

Nerdist maybe try using a different type of fuel they said someone to a flamethrower. I mean it could also be a dual chemical reaction which is a typical thing done by a lot of writers because it's more feasible and separate chemicals being excreted are not actually uncommon so and there are mixtures of chemicals that burn at tens of tens of thousands of degrees so I think you could probably figure it out by that route

[@prashanthkurella4500]

Nerdist why do you need to melt the whole damn wall ?. you just need a corridor big enough for the army to enter ?

[@amberolds9055]

yall realise that dragons can produce there own fuel

[@warningbadjoke]

Prashanth Flash cause if you melt only a little just for the army they could get ambushed because there is only one entrance

[@Danspy501st]

Kyle Hill: "It will only take 5..." Me: *Thinking.* "Huh? That isnt bad for the dragons" Kyle Hill: "Billion to melt the ice wall" Me: *Thinking.* "Oh darn"

[@christina9719]

Daniel Jensen minute 5:00

[@Danspy501st]

Why do you me the time on that? Had watched it

[@phantazmgaming]

Same

[@Grizabeebles]

Correction: 5 beeellion dragons

[@mathchessdnd]

I think Paulo linked the time for the rest of us who want to watch it again.

[@RYgamingTV]

"carry the science" My new favorite quote

[@dipgrizzly25]

In the realm of GoT, Dragonfire can melt stone. Most stone melts at 1500 C, gasoline burns at 950 C. Dragonfire is far hotter than gasoline, because Gasoline can't melt stone and is only used for visual purposes.

[@candie1230]

deafpool plus, they don't have to melt the entire wall, just one section and then it's over because there's a hole in the wall!!!

[@MattSSPP]

except, why would the dragons want to melt a hole in the wall? I feel like the dragons are on the Wall's side in the war against the walkers. This was just a thought experiment on melting the entire wall

[@chandlerridley8809]

Ancalagon the black from middle earth would do a bit of damage, and in the tv show the dragon fire could melt stone! Maybe a bit hotter then the military flamethrowers! Great vid as always man

[@atk9989]

ancalagon the black could probably walk through the wall

[@TheDavidorse123]

I'm pretty sure that Dragon could eat the super big dragon that he was talking about in one bite

[@jordan8086]

call natsu and achonolgia

[@Gavin-N]

I was just about to say that!

[@LordBloodraven]

I'm curious if you considered Ancalagon from the Tolkien-verse. He was the largest winged dragon to ever exist in the Tolkien-verse and while his exact length and measurements were never recorded, when he was killed in the War of Wrath, his body crashing into the earth destroyed the three volcanic mountains of Thangorodrim and created the massive mountain range that splits Mordor in two (from its Northeast to the Southwest).

[@ThomasRelaX]

Science of flametrowers, not dragonfire :( ?

[@dawoodsulaiman3230]

ThomasRelaX precisely dragons can melt stone like Harren hall

[@tacobeeznut]

ThomasRelaX Because dragonfire doesn't exist so a flamethrower is our real world equivalent

[@xXLiLJokerXx]

ThomasRelaX i waa thinking the same thing, shouldn't a denser more energetic form of fuel be used as a substitute? what about a type of combustible corrosive acid? I just feel like gasoline makes for a poor man's Dragon fire.

[@Nerdist]

Well one of these is a thing that we have numbers for. We always need good comparisons as starting points! -- KH

[@xXLiLJokerXx]

Nerdist but Odinson, we have numbers for thermite.

[@kaleblathrom2225]

You only need to melt the bottom of a several meter wide section of the wall in order to get through, meaning there is no need to melt the whole wall because a small portion would do the job.

[@bigjohn5717]

I just saw 1 dragon melt a corner of the wall in like a min.

[@1Atlkid]

Roronoa Zoro after it ran through the middle of it.

[@Dead25m]

Except it didn't melt it, it blew it away

[@Paintedawg]

Melted just enough of it to cause it to collapse under it's own weight.

[@krinaldoma]

Smart white wakers eh

[@Blackbirdxd]

not melt

[@andreaslois3074]

"biggest dragon in fiction" I think you haven't heard of ancalagon the black

[@natelandherr5202]

Hell, even Smaug is fucking huge

[@natelandherr5202]

Now that I think of it Acnologia from Fairy Tail might be named after Ancalagon

[@andreaslois3074]

maybe

[@andreaslois3074]

i dont think you understand the ridiculous size of ancalagon some estimates take him at 213.84 km long

[@natelandherr5202]

I understand, I got that far in the Silmarillion. I'm just saying Middle earth Dragons are gargantuan as is

[@UOweMe]

Why calculate with the whole wall? They only need to take down enough for some wights to walk through.

[@s98715]

yeah exactly

[@estaticethan1752]

@@s98715 true

[@Blackheart.735]

Dragonfire in the series is strong enought to melt stone kinda like they do to harrenhal in aegon conquest so.. is that more powerfull that energy released from gasoline them you should recalculate this

[@deathangellink]

confirm 9/11 was made by dragons, dragons fire can melt steel beam

[@victariongreyjoy7261]

carloandre matos I don't think so depending on the type of stone gasoline could be in the range if it's concentrated and used properly

[@tuseroni6085]

but not if sprayed as a flamethrower...a dragon's fire is hot enough to melt stone as a flamethrower, presumably with just air for combustion (either forced from the dragon's lungs or from the air around the flammable substance)

[@vladicus81]

You don't even need to consider stone though. At least in the show dragon fire reduces people, bones included, to ash within seconds. Gasoline cannot do this.

[@justingold9240]

If i remember right it reduced the tully's to practically nothing in seconds

[@Jordan_C_Wilde]

No other dragon in fiction you say is big enough ?? I raise you Ancalagon the Black from LOTR ...

[@joshuahadams]

Jordan C. Wilde count he just give the wall a good whap with his tail and shatter it?

[@LordAJ12345]

Who was partially brought down by the eagles. Just more proof that you shouldn't mess with the eagles.

[@jmhinnen]

Jordan C. Wilde Technically, Ancalagon was featured in the Silmarillion, but it's still Tolkien's mythos, so it counts. :P And Ancalagon was my first response to that comment, too. lol

[@vyasyash834]

super dragon from dragon ball super find a dragon bigger than that then we talk

[@streetough]

I was hoping someone brought Dragonball Super Dragon into this. Definitely, the biggest Dragon ever seen in fiction.

[@kovacore]

what if the dragons focus on one part of the wall and melt a hole through it?

[@uglynerfherder]

another happy landing Exactly what I was thinking.

[@prashanthkurella4500]

another happy landing I don't understand why the whole wall needs to melted all you need is a 100 - 200 m corridor to get in ?.

[@louisvictor3473]

but that wasnt the question really was it? The proposal wasnt "can dragons significantly damage any part of the wall, even if its only a tiny bit that could be replaced by regular wall materials, constant watch and ballistic weapons", after all. Okay, long story short. If you take the second lowest number the video got (cause that one gives you a number relative to a wall fully made of ice) you need 93.75 dragons to completely melt a section of the wall that is 1 meter wide length wise (I.e. 45M dragons/480 000 meters). So, how much damage can three dragons make in terms of making a hole through the wall (I.e. width or depth of the wall remains the same value, you just find the new height)? 6.816 meters (3dragons * 213 meters/93.75dragon) height of that 1m section of the length of the wall, which means 3 beefed up dragons would make any whole with a cross section of an area equal to 6.816m² (e.g. a 2mX3.408m whole will do as well). only problem is, fire energy/head dissipates in 3d, not biased towars one or the other direction, so what they would actually acomplish is make a roundish recess on the wall, probably not even half of the thickness due to having heat/energy dissipating also away from the wall.

[@mutevampire]

Let's assume they want to scale it back to a 48 meter breach. That works out to 1/10,000 the length (and similarly the volume) of the wall, so taking the most dragon-favoring scenario of 30,000,000 dragons to melt it in a single pass, it'd go down to 3,000. If we allow for multiple passes, things get trickier. The runoff water would need to go somewhere, largely down the sides of the wall and outwards along the ground, where temperatures would re-freeze most of it while the dragons refueled. The net effect would be that the wall would become shorter and the ground higher at a related, but not equal, rate. If we assume 3 dragons at 1 pass per day, they would need around a 2-3 year siege to melt a breach through the wall.

[@ThrottleKitty]

You'd still need thousands and thousands of dragons. You'd have to have like, a perfectly coordinated line of them going in and back out of the hole as one used up it's fire. It'd take like, a month. Plus, where do you think that water goes if you are melting tons of ice inside a small cave? xD It'd be a mess.

[@MathiasMartinWR]

Or you could break the wall with ONE PUUUUUUUUUUUUNCH!!!

[@shiroenai399]

okey bruh......

[@BlaineTog]

You might need to use Consecutive Normal Punches.

[@amuro5992]

na you just need one punch from the "serious series"

[@201chipin]

*One Punch Man Theme Turns On*

[@scornbass1552]

One normal punch will be.. OK. The impact explosion will also vaporise all the WWs, too.

[@maqywhaq]

I think it could be interesting to alter the heat output of the dragon breath(seem to recall the dragons being able to melt fortifications, or at least begin to fuse/melt steel) to create a more intense heat and how that might hold up...

[@thescreengeek8915]

just call Tolkien and get one Ancalagon the Black. I mean Jesus, that Dragon was the size of a mountain range..

[@wowjack8944]

Glaurung is also bigger

[@Aielo98]

Do they need to melt all of the wall? can't they just melt a corridor to get to the other side? Even if the corridor is large enough for the whole army to go through, they might be able to do it

[@Aielo98]

Brawling_NL I think they want more than 3 dragons and 3 people on the other side, so they need to make a path for people to pass walking

[@nicholasprovencher7360]

I just ran the numbers for a 7ft high (213 cm), 1m wide corridor (sized for a man in armor) through the entire 90m thickness, and it would take 1800L of gasoline to melt that much ice. That's assuming 0C temperature and the wall being 100% ice.

[@Sagemel]

Lucas Aielo there are already multiple tunnels running through the base of the wall

[@OsvaldoChannel1]

Nicholas Provencher so giving Kyle's assuptions It would require 1 GoT dragon. that's feasable

[@Nerdist]

what -- KH

[@gaboderflinger7854]

What if we give LIGHTSABERS to the Dragons? Huh? huh? HUH?

[@raven.8073]

that would be quite the surprise.

[@Daimon-X]

Or Atomic Breath... Where is Godzilla when He's needed most?

[@jacksonmatysik8007]

i thought with your profile there was a hair on my screen😂😂

[@kanepovey2781]

Gabo Derflinger is

[@chalicefuse881]

According to my calculations using the same equation taking into account that in the series they melted a corner of the giant wall, and taking the volume of the corner of the wall as 400 meters long, 91 meters wide and 213 meters tall of ice if a single dragon carries 15,000 L of fuel it would only take 3 dragons to melt that corner of the wall. For a single dragon it would take just 35,000 L of fuel to take down that portion of the wall. An olympic swimming pool has 2,500,000 L of capacity. Certantly a dragon can carry 35,000 L with some gym trainning

[@Tman001100]

In the show, one dragon only needed to PARTIALLY melt one section of the wall to where it crumbled underneath and wasn't able to remain supportive enough to where that section crumbled and created enough of an opening. So, don't have to completely melt it thru..just warm it enough to where it is weakened and crumbles.

[@MikeMardisR]

"It would be longer than a dozen 747s and pretty much any other dragon in fiction." A dozen 747s would be roughly 2,800 ft. long. While we don't know his exact size and he only officially lives in one sentence in the Silmarillion, Ancalagon the Black was likely at least this big. He was slain by a guy flying a magic sail boat with help from the Eagles. But when he fell, he crushed three mountains each higher than the peak of Everest. Even if he destroyed them by thrashing about and blowing fire everywhere, he still would have had to have been massive to bring down three mountains of that size.

[@houseofaction]

which is stupid, any creature that large would utterly destroy everything around it simply by flapping its wings

[@TonyStark-ck3wk]

houseofaction I think you severely underestimate how big Middle Earth is. (Also, Ancalagon's purpose pretty much was to destroy things)

[@kawsarhussain5448]

Lol, 'Grrr Martin'

[@tannerratto]

kyle just said "myselves." I'm scared that there are now multiple kyle hills.

[@tylerhouston69]

There are at least 30 Kyle Hills statistically alive right now.

[@tylerhouston69]

29 now, I'm coming for you kyle.

[@Nerdist]

I saw this and hit my head because it was too late to fix -- KH

[@raven.8073]

Nerdist, you're gonna have to hit a lot of your head if there are at least 30 of you.

[@dankinlin4744]

But wait. We see Dany's dragons like melt people with their fire. When Kraznys mo Nakloz is killed in Astapor, Slavers Bay. Surely this means that, although they used gasoline in the flame throwers they use for visuals, the actual dragons fire burns a lot hotter than regular gasoline. I am terrible at maths so I would never be able to work out the actual amount of energy in this dragon fire but I'm sure we all know someone who could work this out. Kyle, I think this may need revisiting.

[@GundamReviver]

not just on the side of the dragons either! on the side of the wall i dont think he acounted for the dragons energy not being evenly distributed, all at once (a whole butt ton of it would be wasted because of surface contact, ice melting, turning to water, and then superheating to steam, taking energy out of the lance of fire. (its also why the allies in WW2 at once point were actually concidering a frozen ice aircraft carrier)

[@zyxyx6754]

The rate at which the fire conducts its energy onto the material is irrelevant to the question of how much energy it contains. Example: A candle that burns for 100000C in 1 second has as much energy in it as a candle that burns for 1000C for 100 seconds."

[@GoErikTheRed]

Zyxyx But if you're trying to melt something that's 20 meters away and you burn very slowly, most of that energy is going to be absorbed by the air and not necessarily transferred to the wall itself.

[@zyxyx6754]

GoErikTheRed which is irrelevant when you're calculating energies.

[@GoErikTheRed]

But calculating the amount of energy stored within a fuel source isn't necessarily indicative of how much useful work you can actually get out of it. The problem here is specifically how many dragons it would take to burn down the wall, and with regards to that problem it is not irrelevant

[@j.moonstorm3158]

The biggest problem with this is that dragons in ASOIAF have fire breath so hot, it can pretty much flash melt stones used to make castles that were thought to be unassailable like Harrenhal.

[@omahh94]

I thought the tittle was going to be "How many dragons would it take to melt steel beams"

[@curseofgladstone4981]

Omar Luna. dragons breath cant melt steel beams... 😐😊

[@wadewilson2286]

Omar Luna or Wolverine's claws, lol. JK , I love the claw episodes

[@Walshman223]

@Dragon Warhammer No but dank memes can

[@bullet10002]

1 dragon

[@kuriaspaul]

1 plane apparently...

[@PROTOTROOPER-u9j]

Wasn't Ancalagon the black from lotr supposed to be as a big as a mountain I think that's big enough

[@draven2get1]

Ok in game of thrones there is a castle where they specifically state that the stone castle was melted by the heat of the dragons fire. Last I checked military flamethrowers so can't do that. So the math is wrong. I would love to see another vid with a updated formula.

[@kingjonstarkgeryan8573]

Draven Raziel Also Dany's dragons are not even close to full grown. They still need about 150 years to even be close to the size of Balerion the Black Dread.

[@thesecomments4777]

No. Her dragons are growing unusually fucking fast. It would take far less.

[@zyxyx6754]

I already gave this answer to another comment, but here it is again: "The rate at which the fire conducts its energy onto the material is irrelevant to the question of how much energy it contains. Example: A candle that burns for 100000C in 1 second has as much energy in it as a candle that burns for 1000C for 100 seconds."

[@rawbagle]

Draven Raziel maybe the dragons fire is magical. If it has the heat to melt stone it would be hard to guess how much fire the dragon that did it was putting out, and how big the dragon's firesac was. teehee, sac.

[@brandonpollard8928]

Draven Raziel you don't sound like you know alot just don't like what your hearing

[@alexmiddleton9390]

Thing is, you might not need to melt the whole wall to ‘defeat’ it. The wall (disclaimer: I have never seen the show or read the books) exists to work as a defensible barrier, so to ‘defeat’ it you’d just need prevent it from fulfilling that purpose, so either you could melt a portion wide enough to allow whoever it is it’s keeping out to pass through it, or melt the defensive features at the top or just burn all of the defenders, in order to facilitate people just building ladders or some sort of ramp over it, or just do enough damage to get thedefenders to surrender and just let people through

[@Kumomyst]

7:28 I know of a bigger one. From the light novel series Mondaiji-tachi, a certain dragon was described as being bigger than a mountain range.

[@marcuswelby3116]

lol I didn't know Thor was a KZbinr

[@lasarith2]

Failure Lord that's what happens when all you do is shout coral and fight Zombies 😉

[@marcuswelby3116]

lasarith2 Zombie? Where I come from, they're called Walkers.

[@blazebuscus9894]

Why don't you just stab the walkers since they're so slow?

[@mrswan7745]

Thor's scrawny little brother*

[@josiahklein70]

Jaxon Duin I thought that was Loki... ;)

[@petertrast]

But Kyle... do you need to melt the whole wall... or just breach about 100 meters of it? Now we're talking 1/1000th or 50,000 dragons... becoming plausible? :)

[@skilsors]

Peter Trast I was thinking that. you wouldn't have to melt the whole wall. Just a good section of it.

[@Amrotu]

The best bet is just fly over you have dragons

[@nonprovareafareclick]

Agree, but using Kyle's numbers, 480 meters are 1/1000 of the wall, 100 meters are 1/4800 of the wall. So using the 45 million dragons figure, you would need 9,735 dragons. Maybe breaching a point with a width of less than 90 meters (which is an average) you can reduce that even further. The bottom line is that regardless of how you change the assumptions, it is very very very unlikely that the dragons could make even just a hole in the wall.

[@thegreatgambeeno]

Amrotu Got one!

[@nik007delta]

exactly i was facepalming so hard during the second half of the video

[@caleblee3344]

7:21 you forget about Ancalagon the Black. "He was so large his falling body destroyed the three volcano mountains of Thangorodrim, the highest peaks in Beleriand." Plus, "Ancalagon breathed fire, which was said to be hotter than any other known flame, hot enough to burn up the Rings of Power"

[@diegodamohill]

No one seems to be pointing out, but i love that you still had smoke coming of your head for a couple seconds in 1:44

[@lenny8275]

What about Ancalagon the Black Death? Wasn't he the biggest dragon? Supposedly many times larger than even Balerion the Black Dread? His size was never specified, but supposedly he was as large as a mountain.

[@talkintactics3762]

The physics of stargates!

[@aidenarnold4955]

cyle pool please god yes

[@cathyshepard253]

Yaaaasssss

[@Angryp0nY]

Space magic

[@NPC-nn4qe]

YEEEESSS!!! FUCKIN' STARGATES; HOW DO THEY WORK!?

[@jerk1921]

OMFG you guys, its called an 'Einstein Rosen Bridge' and its been a real concept for generations, go look it up!

[@hecman888]

The assumption here is that you want to melt all 480 km of wall. But if you only wanted to melt a 30 meter section of the wall to give your forces a way to pass through, you can divide that whole thing by 16,000 (or the number of 30 meter sections in 480km) So, going with the resulting 30 million dragons, you can bring that down to 1,875 dragons or the 3 dragons doing 625 attack runs each and assuming they're all of the same size.

[@trevorcline3359]

the terrifying thing is knowing that the dragons from Skyrim breathe flames as hot as the sun but because magic they don't set the entire planet on fire.

[@MisterTingles]

but dragonfire has mythical status on the show/in the books, it can melt stone and be used to forge valyrian steel (and is supposedly also magical and stuff). plain old gasoline stats won't cut it, Kyle. can we try thermite stats or something?

[@Mae_is_gae]

Yeah, I was thinking that. if wildfire is credited as being second best to dragon fire, and wildfire can melt steel, that's much more that plain old petroleum.

[@JR-mk6ow]

Hidrogen (H2) would probably be more realistic.

[@JudgeKrod]

I was thinking the same. Dragon fire is much more powerful than gas fire. Need to seriously ramp up the energy output of the fire. Also, a dragon could drop it's fire load, wait a few days after recharging, and come back. A few dozen over the course of a week or so concentrating on a spot around a mile or so wide. How long would it take? That's the math I want to see. Don't need to take out the whole wall, just enough to get an army through. A mile wide seems reasonable. 24 dragons, thermite property on their fire, military flamethrower capacity, but with a two day recharge. Do that math, Kyle, I'd absolutely love to know that. Seems militarily applicable with a plausible number answer.

[@lpmdoza]

"carry the science"

[@thatguy2142]

Kyle hill is best nerdist

[@Nerdist]

I concur -- KH

[@OmegaSovereignK-]

Those 'dragons' most probably have two sacs each filled with two different chemicals that ignite when reacted, which is a real thing since there is a real insect that has a defense mechanism that works that way as well as with some existing flamethrowers here today.

[@1959Edsel]

Time to call in Trogdor the Burninator.

[@tailblaze101]

This is assuming 100% efficiency with the heat transfer from the dragons. Which wouldn't be possible. And I'm pretty sure in one of the episodes it is implied than Dragon fire is a lot hotter than conventional gas fires.

[@uglynerfherder]

Philip Mai Not only that, he's saying if they burn the entire wall. Couldn't they just burn a section to get in. (never seen the show)

[@odinzan]

They're goal in the show isn't to get through the wall, he just want to know if they could melt the whole thing

[@phenixslayer21]

+Philip Mai you are correct. Not sure how hot, but dragons melted the stone at Harrenhall. So, pretty dang hot.

[@jagx234]

Philip Mai I was wondering this as well. So we would basically need to use lava instead of gasoline for the equations.

[@bullet10002]

PhenixSlayer so to melt stone you need fire the temperature of lava.

[@Hasharin14]

Kelvin? We use the superior Celsius master race in the rest of the world.

[@mattatthome]

took 1 my dude

[@TheArahnatidOverlord]

Sorry for being a slowpoke, but may I suggest a few points? 1) Assume dragon fuel production/discharge is similar to spitting cobra/bombardier beetle crossbreed, i.e. they constantly regenerate fuel, so it's not "how many dragons to melt the wall", but "how long it takes 1 dragon to melt the wall". Also, this would mean that the fuel is propelled either via muscle contraction around the fuel sack (cobra), gas buildup in mixing chamber (beetle), or redirecting an exhale into the fuel sack-to-maw valve (draconic bio equivalent of perfume bottle with the squeezing ball producing aerosol) 2) Gasoline is nice, but there are nicer things, like the overused napalm, or something more volatile, like dicyanoacetylene or chlorine trifluoride. Whatever burns the hottest and reacts the most violently with other substances, and is hard to extinguish. 3) So it all boils down (lame pun, yes) to estimating the volume of a fuel tank organ, fuel replenishing rate, the nurtients required to produce fuel, time needed to find and ingest nutrients, and...ok, a lot of biochemistry and math overall, but it's gonna be fun, because...because science!. Yeah, definitely because science.

[@darraghwalsh2730]

do a video on where the matter the doctor needs to get to regenerate a new body comes from

[@ThrottleKitty]

It's not something our science can really explain, sadly. It essentially comes from the time vortex. Time lords are exposed to this vortex excessively in their youth, absorbing huge amounts of energy that is stored within their body, but displaced in time. When they "die" this energy suddenly reappears at that time, repairing them.

[@darraghwalsh2730]

Throttle Kitty neither are dragons but he explained that preety well

[@ThrottleKitty]

But I mean, the core to the problem is something that not only doesn't exist in our universe, there is nothing close to an analog for it. I mean, I suppose he could still do a video on it, but it wouldn't be as grounded or scientific as most of them, he would have to make a lot of crazy assumptions!

[@darraghwalsh2730]

Throttle Kitty we're probably over thinking this

[@Lightpaladinsoldier]

It doesn't matter where the energy comes from, it's still energy regardless of the fact that it's displaced in time. Kyle could do it.

[@bradduffan1924]

I don't think you accounted for blue fire (Which is hotter) and undead magic ( Which is unpredictable)

[@LordDrakath]

That was ice breath.

[@dracorules2]

accept ice breath isn't wavy like flames

[@Bowfella]

I don't think the flame is blue because of complete combustion. I think It's blue because of wierd dead ice people ju-ju.

[@heyits17]

What about the fact that the wall is also magic... Magic negates magic maybe? Lol

[@leonthebleh]

It would be interesting to calculate how long it would take a dragon to melt the wall, if we assume that it's fire is magical and never runs out.

[@ajd2393]

"carry the science". Best line he has ever said.

[@snorlaxsnorlaximus3118]

I know ohow much 1 Ancalagon The Black is enough i think ;)

[@InvisibleSloth10]

i know your trying to be realistic but dragon fire in both book and show is said to be at least twice as hot regular fire

[@erbgorre]

the wall isnt just regular ice either tho, so hes making real world assumptions for both. cant really calculate magical fire vs magical ice

[@Nerdist]

This is exactly right. It's the line I walk when making the show. -- KH

[@brocraft7457]

Does anyone else just watch this noding their heads pretending they know what theyre watching

[@MarcosSilva-kv9ej]

Bro Craft Yes someone gets it

[@MeoWHamster]

Bro Craft are you in elementary? i learnt all of this in like 8th grade..

[@jasperalmoore]

Usually shaking my head at all the ridiculous dad-style jokes.

[@Sereomontis]

No, I'm very honest about not understanding any of what he's talking about.

[@98Destructo]

actually this is highschool physics

[@Airwave2k2]

6:01 Mainproblem Refreezing - with Temps under 0°C you have by surrounding air a a capacitor which needs to be heated up too, to prevent the "slighly" icewarterslure to not refreez.

[@LordDrakath]

Nerdist: It takes 5 millions if not billions of dragons to destroy that wall. Night King: Hold my beer.

[@Teraphas]

biggest dragon I can think of would be Primordius from Guild Wars 2. we have only seen part of his head but based on proportions he would dwarf most things

[@ladychrya9379]

The Elder Dragons from Guild Wars 2 are km long in the lore

[@lucacanton49]

ancalagon the black, mate.

[@haydenmcqueen2503]

Super Shenron, mate

[@manticleague4106]

can you do the science of glass slippers?

[@piggyoinkoink6352]

LOL the Taotie from "The Great Wall" just tunneled under the wall while they distracted the army with sieges 😂😂😂

[@PrachirNathETC]

He used to be a fan favorite, but then he took an arrow to the heart.

[@JustinCglass]

This is a prime example as to the lack of understanding of numbers that are very big This is awesome

[@PhelanPKell]

@Nerdist There's a flaw in this math though: By the show's own display, a GoT dragon can turn a fully-grown human male, armour and all, to ash in one burst. So that would COMPLETELY change the math.

[@MrTroodon_Official]

The GOT dragons arent wyverns -_- even using the european dragon to compare. Ok so most of the people use the 4 limbs argument to say Smaug and the GOT dragons are wyverns but you cant be more wrong, the number of limbs isnt a diference that actually matters in most of the European countries since only in English, Scottish, and Irish heraldry is a real diffrence while in most Europe it isnt, for example the dragons from the old norse myths look more like giant snakes (some times the numbers of limbs can vary a lot on this ones)more than the classic view of the European dragon with the 6 limbs.

[@Airvirgo]

But it only took one dead Dragon

[@calebreynolds9183]

*laughing in horizontal King Ghidorah* “Largest dragon? Please”

[@KTChamberlain]

Well, the Night King saw this and counters: "Just one. Mine."

[@GiovanniAuditore]

SEASON 7 SPOILER! I guess one dragon is enough!

[@Ash-----]

A wall becomes ineffective when there is a breach only in one section provided it is big enough to allow troops to move through. Furthermore, once a crack/breech is made, you can widen the breech. Therefore, you only need to focus the fire one one section of the wall and one dragon might be enough. This maybe possible when considering rapid heating an cooling effects which can crack rocks. The effect of rapid heating and cooling can be increased with greater temperature differences. Hopefully you get what i mean.

[@maxsalmon4980]

Littlefinger wants to keep you guessing, Kyle. So you won't know his secret.

[@tedl2711]

You know nothing Kyle Hill

[@PureGoldNeverCorrodes]

There is one variable that you have not considered. Dragons get their fuel from what they eat, so their amount of fuel is not finite. Assuming that it would live long enough, one regular sized dragon could melt the wall over a very long time by using all of its fuel, then going and eating some more, sleeping, and repeating.

[@Aigloblam]

After doing another huge bit of math....If you only had to melt a doorway of a few dozen meters through the wall, it would STILL take 1,290 Dragons several days to do it. As it turns out, Ice is pretty insanely armored against that kind of heat.... Now, Going by the absolute best and easiest way to do it, which is melting a hole at the top and letting the heated water flow over the wall, melting it further, I calculate the absolute lowest amount of dragons you would need (by Kyle's measurements) to be able to get safely through the wall in a time span of One day, is 45. And they would have to be breathing fire constantly on the same spot, no breaks.

[@yellowdevil9650]

"Now that's a good dragon!" Indeed.

[@Shaennamun]

i would like to bring up, that in the book they talk about the walk "weeping" and at night it would melt agen. also we know its not 100% ice. they talk about throwing down a handfull of rock to 1 keep foot traction, and to grow the size of the wall. all in all ice still wins im sure. just need to keep in mind the wall upon attacking may be weeping already.

[@gorillazsan]

What if the dragon was Jörmungandr of Norse Mytholigy, aka The World Serpent? Surely a dragon as big as Jörmungandr could not only melt the wall but also cause way more damage by just moving.

[@nilok7]

Super Shenron says hi to your tiny little dragon, and the galaxy it exists in.

[@robertdevito5001]

I didn't know there were dragons and ice walls in game of tones. I thought that was just an episode of futurama where fry visits his memory of 12/31/1999 in a controlled dream in order to remember the second half of a planet busting tone, only to realize that the tone emitter is just a niblonian key chain.

[@videocian12345678910]

I think somewhere in either the show or books that it said that the dragons can breath fire hot enough to melt steel. So the melting point for Stella is around 1370 degrees Celsius (or 2500 degrees Fahrenheit). So I'm not sure if that would make a difference with assuming everything else is the same but the heat source as well as the dragons using this source at 100% efficiency.

[@trasherhead]

Questions! Something other then gas as fuel. Napalm breath? Thermite breath? Magnesium puke? (or something else that reacts with water) What I'm thinking is that what ever they eject needs to react with something in the air to start combustion, as the dragons don't have any evident means to ignite their fire breath. Lithium maybe?

[@myrrthegravitationallyadep741]

Good episode, but let's just face one important fact: a wall with a hole in it is no longer a wall. You don't need to melt the entire wall, just need to melt enough to get through.

[@Avigorus]

What I'd like to see is what the equations become if you go ahead and assume it's 100% ice with the -40 temp and give the dragons a fire breath fuel as hot burning and energy to volume dense as thermite, assume only 5 dragons, and then calculate how much fuel each dragon would have to be carrying... wish I knew enough math to do that myself, or was less lazy enough to struggle through it and figure it out lol

[@DownHereInChile]

We need a "SURPRISE LIGHTSABER!" compilation!

[@Maltechr]

Kyle watching yesterdays episode: "DAMNIT!"

[@iamnotjcook]

But also, the assumption is that they are not breathing gasoline, as in the show, it is assumed that the dragon fire is hot enough to at least melt iron, given that the iron throne is made of iron weapons melted together by dragonfire

[@BigDadKevin]

Checking the scene again, it's not like every single inch of the wall was melted, only a part of it. And it wasn't melting per se, but debilitating the structure enough for it to break up and fall apart.

[@asammahina]

"Cary the... science." Brilliant.

[@Fahad3197]

5:18 imagine if in the distant future some guy for some reason is binge watching retro KZbin videos like Because Science on his 128K screen and is like "HA I can count all those dragons and have like 3.49 billion pixels left over suck it Kyle". I have no life

[@wildlif3214]

Kyke you forget one thing. Wildfire is supposed to be a substitute for dragon fire. In the show they say that wildfire could melt steel which has a melting point of 1510 degrees C

[@linkdude55]

"Carry the.... science" I died.

[@johnandan1594]

Kyle has gotten really good at writing backwards

[@JamesHarderTheReallyBIGDoor]

Ancalagon the Black from Tolkien was pretty enormous, but even he wasn't many kilometers long as far as I know.

[@andrewmegill5054]

There are a few problems with the calculations that would need revision. The first is the actual heat of the "blue fire" of the dragon in question, the duration of the use of the breath, the actual size of a hole intended in the wall (which looks maybe 100-150 m long), and the tactic the dragon uses of incinerating in a small area in order to let the mass of ice wall above the melted section to collapse, thereby allowing gravity to actually take down the rest of it within the hole desired. Given these variables, what would be the results?

[@JPtheHammer]

Here's a question involving lightsabers, Kyle. Regarding the heat. What if the Lightsaber actually works more like a stick welder, in which it's ability to cut is a result of high current, instead of just heat?

[@dreathnor]

Longer than any dragon in fiction? Kyle, allow me to introduce you to Veeshan from Everquest lore. She was big enough to create essentially three enormous valleys. I know, she's an obscure one but still, she's one massive dragon.

[@isaacbryce2748]

Saying the dragon's fire is a comparable temperature to the flamethrowers they use on set is like saying a lightsaber can't cut anything at all because they use wooden sticks on set.

[@pasozytspoleczny]

Anybody who tried to melt ice into water (like on a winter camping), knows how much energy it requires. In the same time, they didnt need to melt the whole wall,but just enough of it to get through. Additionally dragon fire seems to be way hotter than the gasoline fire. We also cannot assume,that whole the heat would be transferred into ice, a lot would heat up the air around... what I mean,tough calculation,bud. Could be revisited though :)

[@FinanceMan]

Hahaha I love how you are spontaneously set ablaze. NOOOOOO!!!!!

[@CRIZZIEE]

"Carry the science," is going to be my new saying when I am fake doing math for a tip.

[@chrispi314]

If you just want to pass the wall, maybe you could ask 3 dragon to melt just a single way through the wall (big enough for a dragon to pass, while others are resting to fuel up)