Date:         Wed, 14 Feb 2007 11:53:11 -0800
Reply-To:     Michael Elliott <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Michael Elliott <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Batteries don't die, they get murdered
Comments: To: Robert Fisher <refisher@MCHSI.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <00c801c7506d$b10d88a0$657ba8c0@main>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

How was it determined that it was the battery that exploded?

In re the fabric coating on the airship being solely responsible for the
spectacularly hot and quick burn of the Hindenburg, the Mythbusters took
that one one. I can't say whether their results are definitive, but they
determined that the "thermite dope" idea was busted.

"Using the same compounds used in the Hindenburg's paint, the
Mythbusters discovered that they could combine to form highly explosive
thermite. However, the actual proportions of components in the paint
burned too slowly to match the film footage of the Hindenburg disaster.
A scale model of the Hindenburg using the same paint and placed in a
hydrogen-rich environment took about a minute to burn and did look very
similar to the original events. In the end, they concluded that the
Hindenburg's demise could be attributed to both the hydrogen and the
paint, and they agreed that the paint by itself was not responsible for
the rapid burning of the airship. They also pointed out that if actual
thermite covered the Hindenburg, it would make the airship too heavy to
fly."

  [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MythBusters_(season_5)]

--
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
KG6RCR



Robert Fisher typed:
> --snip--
>> The Hindenberg didn't explode, it burned.
> --snip--
>
> ... and apparently it did so because it was coated with a flammable
> sealant-
> had nothing per se to do with the hydrogen. My grandfather was on the
> ground
> there when it happened- it made quite an impression on him.
>
> I once happened to be looking in the right direction and saw a battery
> explode in a Jeep (hey, maybe it runs in the family). I have no idea why it
> happened of course, but it knocked a couple of people to the ground and the
> hood of the Jeep landed about 15 feet away. Sometimes I wonder if my
> wife is
> riding around on some German engineer's idea of a kind of a Russian
> Roulette
> ejection seat.
>
> Cya,
> Robert
>