Posted by David Sherman on Wednesday, February 22, 2006 at 6:04PM :
In Reply to: Re: KA-BOOM, don't try this posted by Ragnar on Wednesday, February 22, 2006 at 9:43AM :
I've put a few paint cans in campfires just for fun. In every case, they make about as much noise as a shotgun, and the two ends of the can go flying in opposite directions at high speed. I agree that in this case, there had to be a secondary explosion, probably the vaporized contents of the can, to do so much damage to the building. If it was a full can, it would have at least a pint of solvent in it. I seem to vaguely remember somewhere reading that 1 drop of gasoline in a cubic foot (or maybe in a gallon) of air was the ideal explosive ratio, so a pint in a garage full of air wouldn't be too far off the mark. I think the ideal ratio is 13:1 of air to fuel by weight, but since the gasoline is liquid, it's a much higher ratio by volume. It's also true that pound for pound, gasoline (or other volatile hydrocarbon) dispersed in the correct amount of air is a more powerful explosive than dynamite. The advantage of solid explosives is they're compact and don't have to be vaporized and mixed with air to work.