Lit Cigarette Cannot Ignite Gasoline?

[EvilRB]

source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,2022042,00.html

Saw this on another forum but it's funny because my tech was just telling me about this and we were going to try it tomorrow, lol!! I really want to see if it's ture or not.



Petrol lit with a cigarette? Only in the movies


James Randerson, science correspondent
Tuesday February 27, 2007
The Guardian

From Hitchcock's The Birds to The Usual Suspects, it has been one of the staple cliches of Hollywood: the cigarette butt tumbling in slow motion into a pool of petrol unleashing a conflagration.

But if you find yourself tied up and doused in petrol don't worry if all your assailant has is a lighted cigarette: scientists have proved you won't end up as a human fireball.

"On the face of it it's a pretty simple problem," said Richard Tontarski, an expert in forensic fire at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms research laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland. Cigarettes burn at around 700C (1,292F) and the ignition temperature of petrol is 246C. "But it just isn't that simple," he said.

Article continues
He began looking into the problem because arson suspects frequently claim a petrol fire was started by accident. "The person claims, 'I accidentally threw gasoline on my girlfriend, she was smoking and she burst into flames'," he said.

To find out whether this was possible, he and colleagues experimented. They dropped burning cigarettes into trays of petrol. They sprayed a fine mist of petrol at a lighted cigarette. They even used a vacuum device to produce the higher temperature (900-950C) of a cigarette being sucked. In more than 2,000 attempts the petrol did not ignite.

Dr Tontarski can only speculate why. The layer of ash on the tobacco, perhaps, or the petrol vapour convected away from the hottest part of the cigarette.

So is he in touch with Hollywood to demand it drops the explosive movie cliche? "Actually they are pretty well aware of it. They don't care."

[breakindrifts]

Do you not watch Mythbusters?

They already proved that a lit cig dropped in gas will not ignite.

[steve_o1989]

They actually did that on Myth Busters and proved that a lit cigarette will not light gas. it will put the cigarette out instead.


**edit **^ You beat me to it lol.

[drftwerks]

what about smoking near a gas station?

[EvilRB]

Damn I didn't see that one. I got to go look it up now!

[IIIXziuR]

That broad from Mythbusters rocks

[WYT R1CE]

what about smoking near a gas station?

They sprayed a fine mist of petrol at a lighted cigarette. They even used a vacuum device to produce the higher temperature (900-950C) of a cigarette being sucked. In more than 2,000 attempts the petrol did not ignite.


:aw: ya gotta read. crazy i know hah

[Kn1ves]

I accidentally threw gasoline on my girlfriend, she was smoking and she burst into flames

well damn now i cant use that excuse. on second thought, im gonna carry gasoline with me to 'help' my friends quit smoking

[murda-c]

Wouldn't it be great if this was all a conspiracy to get stupid people to burn themselves to death?

[jackjack]

i was going to try this the other day. good to know.

[dirtdiggler666]

i smoke and i have done this and it will not light, it will just put the cig out

[Andrew Bohan]

i know a guy who smokes and leaves his engine running when he gets gas.

he's fine.

[Matej]

I'm scared to go to gas stations with my friend because his FC shoots huge flames.

[g-ride]

Gas station fires are usually from static electricity. I like to scare my friends by putting cigs out in gasoline. Lighting a cigarette over a concentration of gas will light your face on fire though.... damn fumes.

[eastcoastS14]

gasoline as a liquid form is not very flamable....drop a cigarette or a match into a container of gasoline and nothing will happen....gasoline is only highly flamable as a vapor....once the gasoline molecules diffuse into the air then the gas itself is flamable....like when you turn on your grill the liquid propane in the tank wont ignite but the fine spray of propane coming out once you turn it on will....

[RiversideS13]

my friend's friend had his face burned while he was smoking and replacing fuel pump. i believe it was the vapor done the harm and not the actual liquid.

[Pank]

^ ^ ^ that is the worst idea ever

[Andrew Bohan]

nope. my grampa's old neighbors had the worst idea ever.

we were eating dinner one fine summer night, and we hear BOOOOOM

run outside, jackass across the street is laid out in front yard, with a plume of smoke rising from the charcoal bbq, which had a huge flame in it, and big red gas can chillin in the grass.

my mom called 911 and they put her on hold. lol.

[S14DB]

Gasoline burns as a vapor not as a liquid.

[s14xman]

you can die in a freak gasoline fight accident haha! when i read this i couldn't help but think about zoolander

[DreamN]

blah... so all this time I've been getting pissed at ppl for smoking at gas stations and it's not even dangerous? lol damn movies!

[S14DB]

No, it is extremely dangerous to smoke at a gas station. As tanks are filled the vapor is released from the tanks.

[bamaboy]

^ what he said. If you look at your gas tank opening you will see 2 or more small holes beside the big hole where you put the nozzle in, that is where the fumes come out as you fill your tank. Most if not all filling stations are equipped with vapor recovery now. I will tell you that even if mythbusters has proved this theory wrong, don't go looking for trouble. I work at a terminal that has about 4 million gallons of gas in storage, sold, and recieved everyday and we take an un-imaginable amount of caution because things can happen very quickly with gasoline. I say why take a chance if you don't need to. Can you not wait the 3-5 minutes it takes to fill your tank and drive away to fire up a smoke?

[drifting_changed_mylife]

thats crazy i never new that! but im gonna try it myself cuz one of my friends say that if you have a lit match and you dump a bunch of gas on it it wont light so we tryed it and his foot caught fire, so i cant really see how a ciggarett wont do the same thing?

[240trainee]

I say why take a chance if you don't need to. Can you not wait the 3-5 minutes it takes to fill your tank and drive away to fire up a smoke?


+1, thats the way I see it.

[Farzam]

Smoking is bad for you.

Cars make bad pollutants.

Save yourself and the world and rid yourself of both burdens!

[daryl337]

I used to work for a wildfire fighting company, a lit cigarette will not ignite gasoline if it is only at the tobacco, and there are no winds around. However, if winds exceed 25pmh, then the cherry can reach temps high enough to ignite gas.

Also, if the cotton in the filter smolders and ignites with wind, then the burning temp of the cotton IS high enough to light gas.

So... break the cherry up and you have no problem at a gas station. :)

[azndoc]

I saw this segment on a tv show once.

A guy was filling lots of 5 gallon tanks of gas on the bed of his truck.

Then all of a sudden the whole bed of the truck in engulfed in flames of fire.

They said that it was due to the static electricity of the metal gas tins that lit the vapors on fire. And thus his ass was on fire.

Pretty cool

[tacotacotaco]

remember that tom and jerry episode where its about the white mouse and hitting it will make it explode then they say it wont but then it did. Lit cigarrettes and gasoline together give me that kinda feeling
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a9/MissingMouse5.jpg

[Andrew Bohan]

i would give posi rep to tom and jerry if they were on zilvia. those guys are OG's

[Rob's S14]

nice tom and jerry reference. that one is classic.

[steve shadows]

i know a guy who smokes and leaves his engine running when he gets gas.

he's fine.

I ONLY smoke when drunk and filling up
:bite:

[undesiredshoe]

i didnt read the post but all i know is that a cigarette lighter burns finger tips like a bitch...trust me.