IYPT 1988, Задачи на турнира — Задача 10. Self-ignition

Problems for the 1st International Young Physicists’ Tournament

Critical edition

Olympiets Youth Center, Moscow, Soviet Union; March 28–April 2, 1988 [1]

Critical edition: translated, restored, and commented text [2]

FINAL DRAFT. — Please do not re-publish. Suggestions and criticism welcome

Translated, edited, and commented by Ilya Martchenko. The original edition’s historical notes, sources and acknowledgments are retained with problem 1.

Епиграф

The sciences nourish young people,
Give consolation to the old,
They decorate a happy life,
And they protect one in misfortune...

M. V. Lomonosov [3]

Условие

“Yet also when a many-branched tree,
Beaten by winds, writhes swaying to and fro,
Pressing ’gainst branches of a neighbour tree,
There by the power of mighty rub and rub
Is fire engendered; and at times out-flares
The scorching heat of flame, when boughs do chafe
Against the trunks.”
Lucretius Carus [8]

Thus the Roman philosopher has explained the origin of forest fires. Estimate the probability of such an ignition and its role among the factors that cause fires in nature, i.e. not caused by a human activity.

Note [8]

Translated from the Latin (De rerum natura) by William Ellery Leonard (Of the Nature of Things. E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., New York, 1921, p. 180.) The Russian text quotes the translation by F. A. Petrovsky (Лукреций, Тит Кар. О природе вещей; Пер. с латин. Ф. А. Петровского. — М.: Худож. лит., 1983)

Решение

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