...What kind of projectile? You eliminated arrows, but that leaves bullets, artillery shells, missiles, buckshot, throwing knives, ninja stars, rocks,molotov cocktails, boulders, spit balls, asteroids, paper air planes, pumpkins, and basically anything you can fit in a catapult.
I'm baaaaaaackWell, one thing I found out as a child is that lighting a paper airplane on fire does NOT, in fact, act as a rocket booster and make it go faster.
In general, many things are significantly more lethal when lit on fire.
For example, normal pillow fight is not big deal, breaking a vase or picture frame at the worst.
FLAMING pillow fight however...
edited 31st Mar '12 5:49:01 PM by Joesolo
I'm baaaaaaackWell, for bullets, you need some amount of phosphorous, magnesium, or other pyrotechnic compund (the amount varies between tracers and full incendiary rounds) at the base, which ignites (presumably from the hear of the gases in the barrel).
For throwing knives? Skewer something that's burning (like a marshmallow), then throw the knife.
edited 31st Mar '12 6:05:52 PM by Balmung
Would anyone mind if I were to sent this thread to Yack Fest? Somehow I feel it would be more appropriate there.
If you wanna keep it here, though, I don't have a problem with that. I just imagine that this thread would be livelier and possibly go in more directions if it were in YF.
Quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur.... The fire won't really have an effect on most projectiles until it hits things. Tracer rounds fly like normal rounds; they're just visible. Burning arrows fly like normal arrows, they're just on fire. If you light the load in a catapult on fire, it still flies in the same normal arc; it's just, ya know, on fire.
And then, unsurprisingly
, its main effect upon impact will be setting whatever it hit on fire.
Having something on fire doesn't really affect the physics involved in the projectile's flight path. It just means it can spread fire when it hits something.
"Lock up your girlfriends, lock up your wives, Grim's on the loose so run for your lives." - Pyrite

What is want to discuss is how exactly you would go about lighting various projectiles on fire. The only one I don't want to know is arrows, mainly because I already know how that happens. Also, I want to know what lighting the projectile on fire would do to things like accuracy and distance fired.
edited 31st Mar '12 3:24:44 PM by BestOf
Creepers: They're like raptors except they explode.