Yeah! And it was completely blank out on the TV.

Bob Swinney
"Tom G" wrote in message
news:y_tug.1769$RV.1237@trnddc08...

"Harry K" wrote in message
ups.com...

Tom G wrote:

I'm trying to imagine. For the sake of argument, would it really be any
greater. The steam is what causes the heater to explode, right? It
seems
the heater would explode when a certain pressure was achieved,
regardless of
the amount of water heated to begin with. Wouldn't the 80 gallons of
water
tend to hold down the remainder of the heater, thus you might get a
greater
"flight" from the 12 gallon. I don't believe the entire water contents
would "instantly" become steam and rupture the tank. Now, as I said,
I'm
just trying to imagine what would happen...I don't really know and have
no
intention of experimenting to find out.

Tom G.

The entire contents no. A good portion of it yes. The physics goes
something like this. The water boils producing steam until it begins
the tank rupture, pressure drops and thus more water turns to steam
(boiling point drops as pressure drops). It all happens in an instant
but that is the sequence. Thus the total steam is much more than the
amount present just before the rupture.
Harry K

Now, I have learned something. Saw a story on TV the other day about the
Mississippi Riverboat explosion at the end of the Civil War that killed
about 2500 returning Civil War soldiers and former P.O.Ws. It was
supposedly the worst maritime accident ever but we've forgotten it because
it's importance was lost to the story of the assassination of President
Lincoln. Only a small paragraph or two was reported in the newspapers of
the time.

Tom G.