I just finished watching a Vietnamese martial arts movie. Ya. Go figure.
It took place in 1950s Vietnam. The hero and heroine were escaping. They shoot a military truck in the gas tank and it explodes thereby facilitating their escape.
OK, OK, I know. It is Hollywood, or at least the Vietnamese equivalent. But if a bullet were to strike a gas tank, especially a vintage 1950s truck, would it explode? Or does it only explode if you are an escaping hero?
The Mythbusters have tried this and their conclusion was that a shot gas tank cannot explode. They tried different amounts of gas in the tank and even tracer rounds. The tank did not explode no matter what they did.
You can also watch this. Maybe not as "current" as MythBusters, but I think its a pretty straightforward demo. They do blow it up at the end though on purpose, just for the hell of it, heh.
I agree, I don't think you can blow up a gas tank with a bullet, even tracers unless there is more to it. Like a damaged electrical system, extreme impact by the vehicle or some other unlikely circumstance!
Maybe if the car has a gaseous fuel tank such as propane or hydrogen, otherwise there is no air fuel mixture. The time and energy required to convert liquid fuels to gaseous would retard the reaction and prevent an explosion. Liquid will not burn, just the vapors that come off of it.
Mythbusters also attempted to blow up a 30lb propane tank by shooting it with various types of ammo to no avail. If I recall correctly they eventually shot it while there was a source of ignition close by. That seemed to be the only thing that worked. (I like that show...)
It can if your in Hollywood, but you have to remember, they use special bullets. You know the ones, they can shoot a 300# man in the shoulder with a .22 and knock him backwards 30 feet, through 2 concrete walls! . Other than that the chances are slim to none.
Cars usually don't explode even when they're on fire. I've been to a lot of car fires on the job and never had one blow up on me. I've heard stories of it happening but I have never seen it. The tires will explode, and I've seen some of the pressurized hydraulic pistons go, but never anything close to hollywood. Which is why it's hollywood I guess.
Under the absolute right combination of conditions, I think it could. I'd bet on the tank needing to be mostly gas fumes mixed with a lot of air, and still have a tight seal when some spark made its way in there. Probably a one in a million chance even with the right conditions.
Of course, I wouldn't be surprised by legislation about making cars more explosion-proof since legislators saw it on TV, much like the way they seem to make laws about supposed 'assault weapons'.
It's probably pretty pointless to talk about incendiary rounds, 50bmg rounds, etc, etc. If you are getting shot at in your car by BGs who have these weapons then you probably have other things to worry about.
99.999% of the things you are likely to be shot at with will probably not cause a gas tank explosion :smile:
You could do it with a tracer round and an almost empty gas tank. Liquid gasoline does not burn, it is the vapors that burn. The perfect mixture for gasoline combustion is 14.7 pounds of air per pound of fuel. If you get your mixture perfect gasoline vapors will explode like dynamite. Too rich or too lean a mixture and your explosion suffers.
So if you want it to go like Hollywood you need to have like a teaspoon of gas completely vaporized in a twenty gallon tank.
Not exactly what you would typically find sitting on the street.
I would guess that a 'projectile' from an 'electromagnetic rail gun' would do it. :yup:
:wave:
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