DIYbanter - View Single Post - Transporting 20 gallons of gas in your trunk and storing in your back yard in the open air question

HeyBub[_3_]

Orak Listalavostok wrote:
On Wed, 21 Jul 2010 08:28:44 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:
It's been PROVEN time and again that those "gasoline explosions" you
see in movies are not realistic. They are staged using pyrotechnics.

I'm sure fuel ignites, eventually, but I remember a MythBusters
episode where they just couldn't get gasoline to light from a
cigarette (IIRC).

OK. I looked it up. MythBusters Holleywood on Trial #7:
It is possible to ignite a pool of gasoline using only a cigarette.

partly plausible

A cigarette has the potential to light a pool of gasoline but just
doesn¢t have enough sustained heat. Gas ignites between 500 °F and
540 °F, the cigarette at its hottest was between 450 °F and 500 °F
but only when it was actually being smoked. An ignition is very
improbable.

Right. The reason for "No Smoking" signs around gasoline is not so much that
the cigarette will ignite the fumes as it is the CIGARETTE LIGHTER will
ignite the fumes.

To be fair, what the signs SHOULD say is: "No lighting of cigarettes around
here"