Are People Really This Stupid?
- Thread starter Geico266
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slacktide
Line Up and Wait
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Dan
Ever seen the Mythbusters where they put out grease fires with water? Splatter ain't the half of it... a few ounces of water poured on a tiny frying pan grease fire makes into a blowtorch that easily torches the ceiling. A dutch oven sized grease fire (like you might use for fried chicken) with 2 cups of water darn near reaches 30 feet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmjSUlKoMXE
Sigh... Alcohol based fires go out as soon as the alcohol is diluted to below 100 proof/50%. Since alcohol and water mix quite nicely, water is a preferred extinguishing agent for an alcohol fire.
hopmedic
Cleared for Takeoff
Sigh... I did say generally, so my answer is not all-inclusive.
Unbeliever
Pre-takeoff checklist
You bet......
Awww, the smell...:wink2:
But then there's the mess to clean up afterwards.
--Carlos V.
You bet......
Awww, the smell...:wink2:
I did an engine to run alky with 13.5:1 pistons, then I came across a deal on a pretty sizable quantity of nitrobenzine...
Premium pump gas at 24:1 with nitrobenzine burns very well even at those compressions.The funniest thing would be cruising the White Castle or somewhere and you could always tell who knew what. Some people I'd pass all of a sudden you see their nose go in the air sniffing around and their eyes get big...
Unless I had my cutouts open, you could never hear the note and it wasn't strong enough to burn your eyes, but it was enough to give you the tingles...DouglasBader
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Doug
Years ago some locals broke into the fire house; a wooden structure, and tried to siphon gasoline from the fire engines. They didn't have a flashlight, and instead, used candles. You can guess the outcome.
I was sitting in an airplane with a student once, discussing the upcoming flight. I watched an old retiree pull up in front of his Cherokee, and carry some things to the airplane. He was a tinkerer. He was the old guy (every airport has one) that restored the little cherokee to a tee; blue printed engine, everything meticulously done, always tinkering, and would probably never fly it. Occasionally he'd run the engine, or sit in it. Mostly it just lacked paint, and had black tape for N numbers, where it sat tied down outside.
I didn't have time to get out of the airplane to warn him when I realized what he was doing; I saw the engine start, the window shades still in place, and he taxied the airplane forward into his car door. When his propeller hit the door, his side view mirror came flying off, and made a neat arc all the way over a two story hangar. Home run. Apparently he'd taken the chains off, and no chocks.
Later I asked him what possessed him to fire it up like that, and he said he'd arrived with no such plans. Sitting in the airplane, he was overtaken by a desire to hear it run, and reason thrown casually to the wind, he cranked up and struck his car. It happens. I watched a different old man chop off his tow bar with the prop the same way, and another take off with the tow bar attached. The latter two managed to do so without the window shade in place, whereas the first one did not.
Water is useful for some fires. It only makes some worse. Some can't be put out with water (self-oxidizing fires, for example), and some blow up with water.