posted
Can your lungs collapse if you crank up the bass on your car stereo? Did the wife of singer James Brown really try to get out of a traffic citation by claiming she had diplomatic immunity because her husband had been given the honorary title "Ambassador of Soul"? Can putting a banana in a vehicle's tailpipe cause it to stall?
These are just a few of the titillating urban driving legends that have been repeated so many times and appear to be so outrageous that you can't help but wonder whether they're true.
quote:Originally posted by snopes: [QB] Can your lungs collapse if you crank up the bass on your car stereo?
Unknown, all the car stero enthusiasts (competitions for decibels and such) refuse to let people get into a car above 160 some odd decibels)
quote: Did the wife of singer James Brown really try to get out of a traffic citation by claiming she had diplomatic immunity because her husband had been given the honorary title "Ambassador of Soul"?
posted
Didn't the Mythbusters bust the idea of the "potato in a tailpipe" thing? They rammed that thing right up there, and the car just kinda pooped it out almost immediately.
-------------------- It can't rain all the time. Posts: 1102 | From: Iowa | Registered: Oct 2004
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quote:Originally posted by vtsquire: use the search function.
Please, please, please tell me you weren't directing this comment at the poster!
-------------------- "The little local company I buy from has CHEAP shipping and I have met their goats." (snapdragonfly)
"And that's one lost erection I'll never get back! You hear me Dan! I'm owed an erection!" (I'mNotDedalus) Posts: 2658 | From: California | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Originally posted by vtsquire: use the search function.
Please, please, please tell me you weren't directing this comment at the poster!
The OP needs to get to know this site a little better.
-------------------- IIRC, it wasn't the shoe bomber's loud prayers that sparked the takedown by the other passengers; it was that he was trying to light his shoe on fire. Very, very different. Canuckistan Posts: 3694 | From: Arizona | Registered: Aug 2005
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quote:Originally posted by vtsquire: use the search function.
Please, please, please tell me you weren't directing this comment at the poster!
The OP needs to get to know this site a little better.
The OP is snopes himself...
Might want to look at who's posting something before making a comment like that. Just a tip.
Morrigan
-------------------- "The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep." Robert Frost, Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening Posts: 1701 | From: Michigan | Registered: Mar 2001
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posted
Getting back on topic, what I want to know is how can a person's lungs collapse if exposed to strong vibrations? Aren't lungs pretty strong organs?
- Pseudo " " Croat
-------------------- "At all events, people who deny the influence of smaller nations should remember that the Croats have the rest of us by the throats." - Norman Davies, Europe: A History
God wants spiritual fruits, not religious nuts. Posts: 4578 | From: Sunrise, FL | Registered: Apr 2002
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Pseudo_Croat, lungs can collapse if subjected to too much pressure differential. And since sound is a pressure differential, enough sound could theoretically collapse the lungs. But this site gives the lung damage level at 68.9 kPa. Since atmospheric pressure is about 101 kPa, you'd need a pressure of 169.9 to possibly cause lung damage. According to this site, that pressure works out to about 190 dB. This site says that 198-202 dB is lethal level. Using the second site I linked to, that gives 200 kPa, or about 2 atm as the lethel level.
Note: This does not seem to be death or injury from lung collapse, but rather death from lung hemmorage.
-------------------- IIRC, it wasn't the shoe bomber's loud prayers that sparked the takedown by the other passengers; it was that he was trying to light his shoe on fire. Very, very different. Canuckistan Posts: 3694 | From: Arizona | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
The Field Manual also points out that these values are for unreflected waves. Inside a small, enclosed space with hard walls, such as a car, a pressure wave may do considerably more damage to the ears and lungs.
-------------------- Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity Posts: 91 | From: Vienna, Austria | Registered: Dec 2003
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quote:If a vehicle's tailpipe is obstructed, there can be no combustion because air cannot be pulled into the cylinders. The vehicle will stall.
Actually, the problem would be getting air out of the cylinders, if you could get the vegetable wedged in enough to hold against the pressure trying to force it out. Shoving several potatos back into the muffler might do it. Combustion should become intermittent soon after the exhaust exceeds atmospheric pressure, since exhaust gasses will be flowing back into the intake. As long as the starter is turning the motor, however, pressure will increase until the exhaust reaches a pressure around 1 atm x the compression ratio, or about 150psi for most cars (or until you blow a seal, but let's leave your private life out of this, ok?).
-------------------- "My neighbor asked why anyone would need a car that can go 190 mph. If the answer isn't obvious, and explaination won't help." - Csabe Csere Posts: 1225 | From: Wichita, Kansas | Registered: Nov 2003
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quote:If a vehicle's tailpipe is obstructed, there can be no combustion because air cannot be pulled into the cylinders. The vehicle will stall.
Actually, the problem would be getting air out of the cylinders, if you could get the vegetable wedged in enough to hold against the pressure trying to force it out. Shoving several potatos back into the muffler might do it. Combustion should become intermittent soon after the exhaust exceeds atmospheric pressure, since exhaust gasses will be flowing back into the intake. As long as the starter is turning the motor, however, pressure will increase until the exhaust reaches a pressure around 1 atm x the compression ratio, or about 150psi for most cars (or until you blow a seal, but let's leave your private life out of this, ok?).
At 150 PSI of pressure in a 2"D exhaust pipe the force on the obstruction is about 450 pounds. Ain't no way a hunk of spud will survive that much force without disintegrating.
A car should have no problem firing a spud out the tail pipe using nothing but the starter motor.
Spud gunners do it all the time with much weaker pipes.
Posts: 629 | From: Greenwood, IN | Registered: Dec 2005
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posted
The starter motor is already fighting the pressure in the cylinder(s) that are in compression mode. If you double that load by making the starter fight the cylinder(s) that are in exhaust mode, you might make the load more than the starter can handle.
-------------------- IIRC, it wasn't the shoe bomber's loud prayers that sparked the takedown by the other passengers; it was that he was trying to light his shoe on fire. Very, very different. Canuckistan Posts: 3694 | From: Arizona | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
I could not find anything with a quick search, but I remember an anti-theft device a few years back called Muf-lock. Basically, it locked onto and sealed the end of the tailpipe to prevent the car from starting...sort of an advanced potato.
-Rogue
-------------------- "'Cause you might enjoy some madness for awile." Posts: 119 | From: Norman, OK | Registered: Oct 2005
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quote:Originally posted by rogue: I could not find anything with a quick search, but I remember an anti-theft device a few years back called Muf-lock.
With a name like that, are you sure it wasn't a chastity belt?
-------------------- "There is no constitutional right to sleep with endangered reptiles." -- Carl Hiaasen Won't somebody please think of the adults! Posts: 8254 | From: Florida | Registered: Oct 2002
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