Quote:
Originally Posted by capngeo
Sir: the only "nonsense" here is being purveyed by you!
I am a firefighter... I've been one for 23 years. Propane has a vapor density (or weight) that is 1.52 that of air. Meaning it is 1.5 times HEAVIER THAN AIR! IT WILL SETTLE IN LOW PLACES AND WILL NOT DISSIPATE UNLESS DILUTED BY ANOTHER MOVING GAS! A combination of 2.5 to 9.6% in air is explosive. Worse yet it is an asphyxiant which is colorless and odorless unless an odorant is added.
Hydrogen is the lightest element, and will not "settle" in air; it will float up out of the boat. Propane will suffocate you, burn you, freeze you, and blow you up!
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Yeah, I like propane, like Hank Hill
http://www.hankhillquotes.com/quotes/Hank-Hill/...but I'm not as smart.
I should be in
bed, but *no*...I gotta sift through the pack of lies they call wikipedia and throw down the law.
Charles' Law, to be precise....
Graham's law - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
...oh, guess that's Graham's Law...see how tired I am.
Now remember that
experiment of pouring out a beaker of CO2 and it snuffed out the burning splint...and the refraction of the light through the different gases as it rolled across the table Yeah, I was there too. It was cool.
Remember the stories of people in a deep hole...like they fell in, or they were spelunking, mining, or digging a well and CO2, H2S, or some other denser than air gas was at the bottom and killed them?....I do too. Those aren't cool.
As a child do you remember what propane was like before they added the stink?...I don't. It's 'always' been stinky.
Do you remember those hot July days putting your two liter bottle of soda from the hot truck into a bucket and squirting with liquid propane to cool it down for lunch....oh, wait, that was just me.
Now, I'm glad you're a fireman. But we need a lawyer because what we have here is a
legal problem..rather we have a problem with the law and we need a physicist...it's so confusing for the sleep deprived....just as I regret using hydrogen as an example because it confuses people who jump to conclusions. Nonetheless the law applies the same to hydrogen as it does to uranium hexafluoride (because you read the wiki)....so indulge me in a little
experiment.
Hydrogen Sulfide is a gas like propane. It'll kill you. It burns. It's denser than air....I suspect you could freeze things with, but it would be ghastly...oh, yeah, and it has that dreaded invisibility thing....actually it is worse than propane, but being a fireman...you knew all that.
Ok for this experiment unless you have H2S in a can you need to eat a good protein/sulfur rich meal because you need those intestinal microbes to grind out some real stinky flatulence...rich in H2S...because being a fireman you know that straight methane farts don't smell.
Now find a big container, a paper bag, a pickle jar, a milk jug, a big ol' bucket....load it up with H2S...but don't whiff, it might kill you because the air oxygen has been displaced. (You know that is suppose to have happened to one big ol' fat guy....I mean 800# fat. He went to sleep in a small room, and the coroner claimed he asphyxiated himself with intestinal gas....that's the story anyway.)
Ok, now that you have filled the container. Set it aside. Put it in a closet. Put it somewhere the sun don't shine and the
wind don't blow to keep convective currents and drafts away.
You're a fireman, so let the law handle it...gRAdamncapkeyham's Law.
Come back the next day and wonder what you have done...shove that schnoz deep and...and...and it's gone. (I'm guessing, I don't know from personal experience.)...or most of would be gone because diffusion of a gas at a rate inversely proportional to the square root of molecular weight is not only a great idea, like gravity,...it's the law. In other words, unless you seal it up real tightly...but that's crazy, it's against the law to keep a fart in a bag in your closet....ya' understand? Try it out and see.
Now for the flatlander and the others in the peanut gallery, I don't know if any of these boats blew up were some combination of murder, suicide,
insurance scam, shoddy
work, shoddy
maintenance, idiot at the switch, or just tragic crappy luck, but clearly there was an ignition before the gas has had time to fulfill 'its
legal obligation' to disperse...because it's a bloody gas and that's the law.
So lets all move along....at a rate inversely proportional to the root of our density.
...and remember; It's better to be careful than fearful.