🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <BzE2oz.I4H@ns1.nodak.edu> csmith@plains.NoDak.edu (Carl Smith) writes:
>In article <1goebdINNik@gap.caltech.edu> carl@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU writes:
>>
>>But enough energy to move that vehicle
>>on the order of 100 miles at freeway speeds is still around there someplace. 
>>It didn't just vanish.  And that's a LOT of energy.  And it got dumped FAST.
>>
>>In other words:  BOOM!
>
>I am not going to argue the above point, but consider this.  If you are
>going to measure danger by the amount of stored energy, then which is
>more dangerous when it explodes?  A flywheel that has enough energy to 
>move a car 100 miles at freeway speeds, or a tank of gasoline with enough 
>energy to move a car at greater-than-highway speeds for 300 miles?

The difference is that liquid gasoline can't explode, only a properly
mixed 14:1 ratio vapor can explode or burn completely while the flywheel
can fail explosively. Liquid gasoline is a potential fire hazard in a
collision, but it is not an explosion hazard unless the liquid is properly
vaporized and mixed in the correct ratio with oxygen. TV reruns of the A Team  
notwithstanding, gas tanks can't explode if they're full. A nearly empty 
tank *may* explode under the right conditions, but the force is much less 
than the energy content of a full tank of gas.

Gary