Comments on: Episode 128: Greased Lightning

By: jon

jon — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 18:36:39 +0000

was ice cold water used

By: Giftish

Giftish — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 18:28:12 +0000

So, no one noticed how windy it was when this myth was done? This I a myth burning down a house, no wind what so ever. Do this myth inside.

By: Geoffrey

Geoffrey — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 01:16:38 +0000

My house almost just burned down because of a small household fryer fire, mom’s bf threw water on it which made the flames jump to the ceiling, then grabbed the mop i had soaking in bleach water which almost completely engulfed the whole kitchen. I was there almost immediately with flour and succeeded in extinguishing the fire but not before minor damage occurred in the kitchen

By: Geoff

Geoff — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 22:27:19 +0000

Hmm, just had a look at the cheese cannon on youtube… Somehow I don’t think they would have taken the time to cut it down and remove the wax before firing it… I think the paraffin wax would have made a huge difference

By: Markno Hawking

Markno Hawking — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 21:38:34 +0000

So, like my teachers used to say, “Do it over and do it right this time.”

By: Markno Hawking

Markno Hawking — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 21:37:23 +0000

I have a an issue with the grease fire and a couple of observations.

First the complaint; how in the world can you expect to accurately measure a vertical rise of exploding gasses with a cross wind? Come on Adam, I have come to expect so much more from you. Gee Jamie, you usually catch Adam when he does these things.

Trying various oils looks like molecular cohesion was a contributing factor. The thicker the oil source the lower the fireball seemed. But that could have been tainted by the a fore mentioned crosswind.

The fireball is created when burning oil is expanded by the water turning to steam at a very rapid rate thus introducing a greater supply of oxygen as well as a “path of least resistance” in a vertical orientation and carried up by the intense heat rising. As all pure water changes to steam at 100*C (*=degrees on my keyboard) and you have no pressure vessel to increase the temp. of steam, changing the temp. of the oil or the water would seemingly have very little effect. What would do the best would be to have an oil that has a lower burn rate but a very low viscosity and weight. Thus going higher and burning long enough to make it to 30 feet.

But then again, I am no scientist.

By: Josh

Josh — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 19:18:32 +0000

Because, simply put at the beginning, middle, and end of every episode, “DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME” is probably impeding these loyal fans from doing there own experiments…

By: Andrej

Andrej — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 21:33:19 +0000

The Part with the grease fire

they should retest this… i think it is possible to get a 30 feet high fireball with peanut oil and 8 US fluid ounces of water, if there is no wind…

you can see, that the wind influenced the fireball

By: Richard

Richard — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 03:33:10 +0000

Notice how the fireball drifted to the right as soon as it rose above the 8′ high windblock on the left? I’m sure that had they done it on a calm day, it would definately blown past the 30′ mark.

By: nick

nick — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 04:59:55 +0000

I agree with michael and gillotte going sideways would lower the total height