posted
I've spotted this one in both the 'Darwin Awards (I think book 2) and in the 'Good Oil' column (22/07/05) the New Zealand Herald news.
Basically someone tries to siphon petrol out of a car using a vaccum cleaner and ends up setting the car on fire.
Did this really happen, or is this one of those things papers recycle when they are out of stories?
Posts: 27 | From: Perth, Western Australia | Registered: Jan 2006
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DemonWolf
Ding Dong! Merrily on High Definition TV
posted
A shop-vac can suck up liquids. The instructions on the one I own warns of dire consequenses for trying to suck up flammable or combustable liquids.
I vote plausable, but without a source, impossible to verify that it actually happened.
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posted
Okay, you have gas/petrol that is being agitated, which creates gas vapor. Gas vapor is what explodes (go boom!), in a vac, you have an electric motor that creates sparks. Sparks plus gas vapor equals boom!
-------------------- And now for something completely different... Posts: 4164 | From: Alabama | Registered: Oct 2005
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posted
Mythbusters has ran this attempt before in which they used gasoline sucked up and attempted to send the vacuum into orbit without success. The vacuum was covered enough not to absorb the fuel or vapors to light up and skyfly.
Let alone shooting lighter fluid into the motor itself.
They took a vacuum cleaner into a missle design and rewired it to launch with a cigarette lighter as the igniton source. Still with no launch except a varying degree thrust not enough to sustain an orbit. ______________ As to the question of blowing up the car using the suction as the ignition source, doubtful unless you create a high friction in the metal runnings of the tank or not follow safety law regulations written in every gas staton like the engine is off or no smoking.
-------------------- Joseph Z Posts: 1356 | From: Woodbridge, VA | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
Mythbusters (I've not seen that episode, so I'm just talking about combustion in vacuum cleaners in general) could maybe manage to blow it to pieces, but they will not generate any thrust worth mentioning. A jet engine is just too complicated to happen by a lucky coincidence in a vacuum cleaner.
-------------------- /Troberg Posts: 4360 | From: Borlänge, Sweden | Registered: Nov 2005
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