Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with explosion

WTF was that?!

kmz — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:36:05 -0800

My fiancee and I were just now woken up by the sound of a large explosion right in our bedroom. Almost like a gunshot but not quite that loud. And I think I saw a flash of light. Both seemed to come from near the ceiling by the door. I turned on one of the lights but there's no residue I can see from anything. Nothing seems to be broken in terms of lights or circuits. Was it some kind of giant static discharge? It scared the shit out of us and definitely isn't helping with the both of us bedridden with flu thing.

Pyrex everywhere

ericc — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 09:05:55 -0800

I just had a Pyrex dish explode in my oven. (It happens, apparently.) I’ve removed all the pieces I can see, but undoubtedly there are shards that fell into cracks below. Is it okay to use the oven with those remnants in there? I don’t think I’ll be able to lift the oven over my head and shake it until everything falls out, so if it’s not okay to leave those shards in there, what can I do short of buying a new oven?

Best way to blow up a tv?

alitorbati — Sun, 10 May 2009 22:52:51 -0800

What's the best way to blow up a TV for an art project? It should be easy to set up, relatively safe, and reasonably priced. I plan on filming it so it should look good on camera. If I need to buy anything, I'm in Los Angeles.

What was that really loud boom just now in Santa Cruz, CA?

gavtaylor — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 09:27:17 -0800

I just heard a loud boom, and felt a shockwave rattle my trailer here in Santa Cruz, CA. My neighbors felt it too and were very curious. Could it have been an earthquake? I live on campus at UCSC. The boom was at appx. 9:19 AM, March 3rd 2009.

According to google/USGS:

http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUS315&=&q=earthquake+santa+cruz&btnG=Google+Search

it wasnt an earthquake or hasn't been reported yet.

My question is:
How can I find out what made this quite loud boom and shockwave?

I'm trying to recreate a nuclear apocalypse

ictow — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:22:35 -0800

I need an audio clip of a nuclear attack warning. Double points go to 50s-style announcer versus EAS computer voice. Triple points go to clips that are free and easy to get. I've got the explosion part, I just need that foreboding warning before it happens. Thanks!

Need a scientific explanation of how the Confetti Bomb Prank works

phonepimpster — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 17:54:50 -0800

I'm looking for a scientific explanation of how this "confetti bomb" prank works. It uses compressed air squirted inside a film canister, then quickly filled with confetti and sealed. After a few seconds, the canister explodes. Why? I know they use an extremely cold liquid in compressed air containers, and holding the can upside down discharges the liquid. Air contracts when cooled, so the effect is actually technically an "implosion" of the lid being sucked into the film canister. Is this correct?

Also:
- What is the liquid in the compressed air container?
- Why does it squirt out as a liquid when the can is upside down?
- Why is this prank so much fun?

Identify these scenes: LA's Stack, a bull, a 60's Alfa, a clock, an explosion

stereo — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 05:18:06 -0800

Can you identify these scenes? LA's highway Stack, a bull in an arena, a 60's Alfa Romeo radio, a wall clock, and an explosion. I'm trying to find the origin of a couple of scenes, all of them from movies produced or distributed by Warner. All of those are definitely pre-1993, and most probably pre-1985. The shots were taken from La Classe Américaine, a French parody movie from 1993 that used sequences from other movies and re-dubbed them to create a whole new story, which a friend is restoring.

The first scene (first shot and second shot, ignore the text) shows the first four-level interchange in Los Angeles, aka The Stack, built in 1953. We have already found similar scenes in Hollywood Boulevard (1976), Helter Skelter (1976), and Death Wish II (1982).

The second scene (first shot, second shot, and third shot, but ignore the western scene at the beginning) shows a bull, probably in a corrida arena. Similar scenes exist in The Valley of Gwangi, Around the World in 80 Days, The Miracle, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and Quo Vadis.

The third scene is a wall clock.

The fourth scene is a late 60's a US-model Blaupunkt Frankfurt or Blaupunkt Essen, most probably in an Alfa Romeo Duetto Spider. We've found similar scenes in The Omega Man (1971), Rebel Without a Cause (1955), Every Which Way but Loose (1978), Rock and Roll High School (1979), 10 (1979), and Any Which Way You Can (1980). We've watched all the movies marked as featuring a Spider on IMCDb, with no success.

Number five is an explosion that goes up in a mushroom cloud. It isn't from Mad Max, When Time Ran Out…, Bullitt, Hooper, Beyond the Poseidon Adventure or City Beneath the Sea.

I'd be really impressed if you could identify even one of those!

9v battery explosion

snsranch — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 16:48:02 -0800

Can anyone tell me why a 9v battery would explode? Description of the event... Just a while ago I heard what sounded like a .22 being fired and was sprayed with warm stuff. At first I thought I had been shot but upon inspection it turned out to be a 9v battery that was sitting on a work bench behind me. It's the tiny rectangular kind with the terminals next to each other (the kind you stuck your tongue on when you were a kid).

It wasn't touching anything and the "warm stuff" was gray sticky powder. The part that blew out is opposite the terminals.

Any ideas? This kinda freaked me out.

Explosion video

stoneegg21 — Tue, 23 May 2006 21:13:07 -0800

Electric Arc of Death's video is gone, and I really want to see it again. Does anyone have a copy or know where to look?

What would a real bomb squad do?

Kololo — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 14:26:10 -0800

Last Sunday's Grey's Anatomy episode is bothering me. At the end of the episode, Dylan (the bomb squad guy) takes the bazooka shell from Meredith and slowly walks out of the room. This seems illogical/silly/non-bomb-squady to me. In reality, wouldn't/shouldn't he have placed the shell into some sort of explosion-proof box (or something) that was waiting right next to him? What would a real bomb squad do? Would he really have been trained to walk away with it in his hands?

As it stands, Dylan's training on the show indicates that bomb squad members are just good at keeping people calm and telling them to keep the bomb 'level'. (Rather than, say, containing bomb explosions.)

Mining accidents 101

goethean — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 13:26:28 -0800

My brother claims that the miners who died "could have walked right out". Is he full of it?

Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Exploding Oven Door

WCityMike — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 08:13:00 -0800

On Thursday night, my stove's glass door exploded for no discernable reason whatsoever. Since MeFi's population encompass many trades, I'm hoping there's someone with a background in physics, engineering, or an appropriate tradesman who either knows or can venture a fairly educated guess as to why it happened. I had just finished cooking two small pizzas for 450 degrees for 14 minutes. I had taken them out of the oven and was cutting the pizza on the tray with a pizza cutter. [The stove is a GE 30" Free-Standing Gas Range (Model No. JGBS07PEHWW). It is not a self-cleaning oven, nor is it a glasstop oven. I believe it was brand-new, as the landlord is in the process of renovating the building and is putting new appliances in each unit as they renovate them.] I heard a large bang/shatter and saw a lot of glass crumbs fall on the kitchen floor. The glass was safety glass, like the kind you see in windshields — in all the cleanup that followed, I never came across a single glass "crumb" from that door that had a sharp edge to it. Indeed, my cat's crystal litter was more uncomfortable to trod upon than the one or two crumbs I missed during clean-up.

I opened the oven door and immediately noted that the inside glass had shattered, and that there was glass inside the stove, inside the door's metal frame, around the edges, etc. Thankfully, it was safety glass, so none of it appeared to have any hard edges.

It bears repeating that I never slammed the oven door (nor could I slam it hard enough to shatter it; I’m simply not that strong). I also do not believe that the glass slid or fell out of its holder, due to the presence of glass around the edges and in the oven (suggesting it burst inwards towards the oven). Some of the glass was warm to the touch, but then again, I had just finished cooking the pizzas.

After I cleaned it up, I of course looked on the Internet, and found others whose G.E. oven ranges' glass doors had exploded — specifically, links here, here, here, here. (I don't know which model the complainants had, except in the latter.)

On the bright side, it doesn't appear as if it's happening on a national basis, if, with such a popular brand as G.E., I can only find a handful of complaints of it happening spanning over six or seven years — plus, were it exploding regularly and nationally, a recall would have undoubtedly followed. So I think that the odds of it happening to me again are low, but not out of the question. Hopefully, it would again result in no injury, since this model's glass door is solely on the inside of the oven, with a sort of heat shield front that is in no danger of breaking similarly.

My landlord replaced the oven with another one of the same model. I know that Ask MeFi encompasses a large crowd of professionals, and I am frankly wondering if anyone (perhaps with a background in physics, or engineering, or the appropriate trade?) has an educated guess, or knows, why the glass broke. I would feel a bit more comfortable having this mystery explained (or at least having a possible few rational explanations under my belt). And, given the less-than-fruitful discussions the above-linked individuals had with G.E., I don’t think I’m going to get much of a straight answer out of them.

Thoughts?

Lex Luther vs. the San Andreas fault-line

0bvious — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 17:23:48 -0800

In the original 1978 Superman movie Lex Luther plans to split apart the San Andreas fault-line using Nuclear armaments - the resulting explosion destined to send the entire Californian coastline and its inhabitants to murky ocean depths.

How much explosive force would be needed to cause any such kind of earthquake? And, using the San Andreas fault as a model, could Lex Luther's diabolic plan have any degree of success? This is a response to the increasing interest in next summer's Superman Returns epic. I hope the question sparks some interesting debate...

Transcribing an explosion

cillit bang — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 17:20:10 -0800

I'm transcribing a speech and the speaker just did that thing where you simulate an explosion noise with your throat. What should I write?

Nuclear Fallout

trharlan — Thu, 01 Jul 2004 09:19:24 -0800

In the event of full-scale nuclear war, will there be survivors in places like Mbuji-Mayi, Wekweti, and Noril'sk? If they were to survive the initial blast, would the fallout get them?

Could a nuke make Yellowstone Caldera erupt?

troutfishing — Tue, 04 May 2004 09:19:43 -0800

Could a small nuclear device, sunk to the bottom of Yellowstone lake and detonated, actually cause the Yellowstone super-caldera to erupt? (more inside)

Is it bad to store an empty gasoline container in my car?

keli — Thu, 04 Mar 2004 13:46:51 -0800

An empty gasoline container stored on the carpeted floor of a vehicle: good idea or forthcoming explosive disaster?