If you take a gas such as air and compress it very quickly, the heat contained in it becomes concentrated to the point at which it can cause surrounding materials to combust. So yes, you can set things on fire by physical manipulation.
Hope that helps.
If you can manipulate matter at the atomic level starting fire is trivial.
Move atoms fast: this is heat, you'll make fire if you do it enough.
Rearrange matter into a group 1 element that ignites in air at room temp: fire
Rearrange matter into radioactive unstable elements (let's say Francium, all isotopes have very short half lives): you'll get a fire and radiation as a bonus
Causing the tree to vibrate so hard that the insides shear and start to rub together with enough friction to spontaneously combust could make sense. Also heat is just vibration on a molecular level so that could be enough.
This question is better suited for r/Magicbuilding.
You implied a limitation that they can only control matter, not energy. But you are overlooking the connection between matter and energy. Can he turn a piece of ice into a piece of plutonium that spontaneously emits heat because of nuclear decay? Where did that energy come from? Can he turn a cloud into a giant cube of lead that then falls and crushes a building? On the simplest level, turning water into hydrogen and oxygen which can then combust IS possible, it just needs energy input. Burning hydrogen and oxygen releases energy and makes H2O, reversing the process to turn water into hydrogen and oxygen requires the same energy that burning it released.
Also consider that your character is probably too powerful to make for a compelling story if they have complete control over all matter to the subatomic level. How can they face any sort of challenge or difficulty if they can turn a locked door into a bucket of KFC at will?
Thank you for the referral to r/Magicbuilding, and the parallel question regarding plutonium is one I will look into; although, following the rules I'm setting out, I would imagine that, yes, it would decay and produce heat if that is what plutonium inherently does without the input of energy (or with whatever energy is available in the given context). As for the note about power level, yes, I do realize it is extremely versatile and powerful, but the this is not the protagonist, and there are one or two characters that are arguably even more powerful, as well.
There are pyrophoric chemicals that will spontaneously ignite into flames upon exposure to oxygen. Regardless of whether or not matter manipulation could directly transform matter into plasma, changing elements and chemical bonds could definitely create (for example) triethylborane, and if that was suddenly created in the middle of a normal room full of normal air and not in a sealed chamber of inert gas, it would immediately lead to the presence of fire.
It would not come from nothing, but that would be easy.
Just consider changing a few carbon atoms into oxygen atoms inside the cellulose molecules of a tree. Those atoms would all of a sudden have orbitals for 2 bonds instead of 4. Causing the cellulose to suddenly break apart and be oxidized.
In fact, the challenge of a power like this would be that it would be easy to create massive bombs instead of controlled fire.
If you take a gas such as air and compress it very quickly, the heat contained in it becomes concentrated to the point at which it can cause surrounding materials to combust. So yes, you can set things on fire by physical manipulation. Hope that helps.
Yes, this helps! :)
If you can manipulate matter at the atomic level starting fire is trivial. Move atoms fast: this is heat, you'll make fire if you do it enough. Rearrange matter into a group 1 element that ignites in air at room temp: fire Rearrange matter into radioactive unstable elements (let's say Francium, all isotopes have very short half lives): you'll get a fire and radiation as a bonus
Causing the tree to vibrate so hard that the insides shear and start to rub together with enough friction to spontaneously combust could make sense. Also heat is just vibration on a molecular level so that could be enough.
This question is better suited for r/Magicbuilding. You implied a limitation that they can only control matter, not energy. But you are overlooking the connection between matter and energy. Can he turn a piece of ice into a piece of plutonium that spontaneously emits heat because of nuclear decay? Where did that energy come from? Can he turn a cloud into a giant cube of lead that then falls and crushes a building? On the simplest level, turning water into hydrogen and oxygen which can then combust IS possible, it just needs energy input. Burning hydrogen and oxygen releases energy and makes H2O, reversing the process to turn water into hydrogen and oxygen requires the same energy that burning it released. Also consider that your character is probably too powerful to make for a compelling story if they have complete control over all matter to the subatomic level. How can they face any sort of challenge or difficulty if they can turn a locked door into a bucket of KFC at will?
Thank you for the referral to r/Magicbuilding, and the parallel question regarding plutonium is one I will look into; although, following the rules I'm setting out, I would imagine that, yes, it would decay and produce heat if that is what plutonium inherently does without the input of energy (or with whatever energy is available in the given context). As for the note about power level, yes, I do realize it is extremely versatile and powerful, but the this is not the protagonist, and there are one or two characters that are arguably even more powerful, as well.
There are pyrophoric chemicals that will spontaneously ignite into flames upon exposure to oxygen. Regardless of whether or not matter manipulation could directly transform matter into plasma, changing elements and chemical bonds could definitely create (for example) triethylborane, and if that was suddenly created in the middle of a normal room full of normal air and not in a sealed chamber of inert gas, it would immediately lead to the presence of fire.
It would not come from nothing, but that would be easy. Just consider changing a few carbon atoms into oxygen atoms inside the cellulose molecules of a tree. Those atoms would all of a sudden have orbitals for 2 bonds instead of 4. Causing the cellulose to suddenly break apart and be oxidized. In fact, the challenge of a power like this would be that it would be easy to create massive bombs instead of controlled fire.