What's going on inside flasks and vials?

[StreamOfTheSky]

Ok, I noticed this a long time ago, but mostly let it go. But I'm feeling like dwelling on minute, funny little rules wrinkles tonight, so here it goes:

An empty (potion or ink) vial weighs 1/10 a pound. An empty flask weighs 1.5 pounds.

A flask of Holy Water, Acid, or Alchemist's Fire all weigh one pound. As does a pint of oil in a flask.

A vial of 1 ounce of ink weighs "--", or neglible weight, as does a vial of Antitoxin.

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Has this been discussed before? I did a google search, couldn't find anything. But surely others have noticed this.

Can this property be harnessed for more general use? Perhaps create a giant flask for people to walk into to drop a few pounds, like a magical liposuction apparatus? Maybe some shamanistic tribes use larger flasks to create shrunken heads?

 

[DumbPaladin]

ugh ... double post.

 

[DumbPaladin]

I'll take a crack at this ...

The vial, I really have no idea about ... how can something go from having mass to being almost weightless? But really, 1/10th of a pound should have been called negligible anyway.

As for the flask: it loses weight when you pour the caustic liquid into it because the acid (or whatever) is slowly eating away the inside of the lining of the flask ...?

I like the liposuction idea, though. If you could find a way to combine this free weight loss program with a portable hole, where people can enter one weight and exit much slimmer, I think you'd make tons of platinum. At least 1d10 platinum per day of work.

 

[HoboGod]

As for the flask: it loses weight when you pour the caustic liquid into it because the acid (or whatever) is slowly eating away the inside of the lining of the flask ...?

Matter cannot be created or destroyed, it's obvious that there's a conspiracy among the merchants of Ebberon, in league with Kuo-Tao empire, to mislabel the weight of liquid so that adventures bring more of it everywhere they go. THE FISH MEN ARE TRYING TO WET THE LAND!!! THROW BACK YOUR HOLY WATER BEFORE WE ALL DROWN!!!

 

[Dog Moon]

Maybe the answer is more like: The flask weighs 1.5 pounds. The liquids weigh 1 pound. Put the liquid in the bottle and woosh, 2.5 pounds for liquid in the bottle.

As for the vial, well, it doesn't hold much liquid, so the negligible liquid doesn't increase the vial's 1/10th pound, so adding them together continues to be 1/10th pound.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

An empty flask weighs 1.5 lbs, and a flask of oil (1 pint) weighs 1 lb. So clearly oil weighs -.5 lbs per pint.

A 20 gallon (=160 pints) barrel of oil, therefore must contain -80 lbs of oil. Since an empty barrel weighs 30 lbs, a full barrel must weigh -50 lbs. In other words, a full barrel of oil is lighter than air!

Thus, when a cluster of full barrels of oil (roughly 4 to 6) are lashed together, they can easily lift the weight of a fully equipped medium-sized adventurer, in the manner of a helium balloon. And if these barrels are then painted bright, festive colors, and the adventurer clad in a gaudy clown suit, zany antics are surely not far behind!

[edit: this, of course, is the basic principle behind spelljammer magetech.]

 

[Deset Gled]

An empty flask weighs 1.5 pounds.

A flask of Holy Water, Acid, or Alchemist's Fire all weigh one pound. As does a pint of oil in a flask.

I believe the answer is simply that they're different types of flasks. The flasks used for Holy Water, Acid, etc is a lightweight glass flask designed to shatter; this is why these items can be used as splash weapons. The flask in the mundane item list, however, is a metal flask designed for drinking; it is made of a heavy material like pewter, and is designed to be reusable.

An empty (potion or ink) vial weighs 1/10 a pound.

A vial of 1 ounce of ink weighs "--", or neglible weight, as does a vial of Antitoxin.

1/10th of a pound is a pretty negligible weight for D+D. Chalk it up to an editing inconsistency.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

New hypothesis! Weight is actually just a force, and its value is based upon the acceleration due to gravity times the actual mass of the substance. So clearly the most logiscal answer is that either inside the flasks and vials, or as a (electromagnetic?) field generated around them, the effective gravity is ~33% reduced.

 

[Uder]

New new theory - D&D designers gave up on proper weights and measures about 1974 (full potion vials weighed 3lbs back then IIRC).

 

[Cor_Malek]

Elementary, my dear Watson.

Different products call for different measurements. And there are different kinds of "pound". Apparently, the mass for utensils such as ropes, 10' poles but also flasks and vials is measured in pound which equals to more mass than the type of pound for liquids/edible merchandise. In terms of Earth Campaign Setting, it'd be tower pound for utensils and london pound for liquids, rounded up (also viable: tower-metric, troy-metric), as seen here.
Of course there might be different kinds of pound not only for different Campaign Settings but also given cities and regions! It is customary that large exporters of, let's say potions, would use a pound that weights less, for the psychological impact. On the other hand, they might choose to use different type of pound to describe mass of lumber or masonry, because their lesser pound would be inefficient when describing big weight.

In Middle Ages module for Europe Campaign Setting, this problem was solved quite simply: in every town square, where merchants gathered to sell their products, some kind of authority - secular or clergy - offered ways to objectively compare weight, volume, length etc - typically by having parts of walls of City Hall or church/cathedral with all normally used lengths. They also provided objective weights. Should one be proven to cheat on his clients, there was another structure nearby - a pillory. To punish and give example at the same time. But pesky PC's should be warned! If the merchant is proven innocent, in many countries the accuser gets the whips!