Depleted Uranium Oil

[Egavactip]

A lantern can hold 3 flasks' worth of oil. Yet it weighs only 5 pounds, which if I recall correctly is less than the combined weight of three flasks alone.

Why is oil so heavy in Angband?

[Pete Mack]

Not to mention it apparently no longer does extra fire damage: it does extra damage vs all enemies (not that this is important, since there are essentially zero fire-resistant things you might throw it at.) But the description is wrong, in any case.

[Sky]

oil flasks are heavy terracotta jars. the container weights more than the oil within.

[Derakon]

The lantern actually burns all the oil immediately, but captures all of the photons in a special mirrored chamber. It then gradually lets some of the photons escape over time to provide illumination.

[Pete Mack]

@Derakon--of course! Why didn't I think of that; it makes perfect sense. Except I think it turns the oil into a light-emitting fluid like firefly juice.

[Sideways]

A lantern can only hold 15000 / 7500 = 2 flasks' worth of oil; and two flasks of oil weigh less than a lantern does. That said, a lantern weighs the same whether it's empty or full