Website review: Petrol lit with a cigarette? Only i...
KarenAK discovered this in Science/Tech
•1 reviews since Feb 26, 2007
science
•guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,2022042,00.ht...
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KarenAK discovered 17 months ago- Comforting to know.... Petrol lit with a cigarette? Only in the movies "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." ...more
