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Author Topic: Fire Tennis  (Read 1865 times)

Ed Blagden

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Fire Tennis
« on: November 13, 2013, 03:28:18 am »

I came across this one while searching for high speed video of a tennis racquet impacting a ball... not quite what I was looking for but this is awesome (and very very silly).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NS1umhAAeg

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Rob C

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Re: Fire Tennis
« Reply #1 on: November 13, 2013, 04:19:11 am »

Yes, a typically dumb 'student' prank which I hope nobody tries to ape.

It isn't the liquid that's dangerous, it's the fumes that ignite. My wife worked in an industrial science lab for some time; she remembered for years the day some volatile liquid did just that: burst into flame via a distant Bunsen burner that shouldn't have been on at the same time as the liqiud was being handled...

Gas stations come to mind, and warnings to switch off cellphones.

Funny, but bad science.

Rob C

Harald L

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Re: Fire Tennis
« Reply #2 on: November 13, 2013, 07:10:05 pm »

This prank is really not acceptable! :-[

Harald

PS: When I was a young guy I've attended a course for autogenous welding. We had little workbenches made of tubes which were open at the bottom. We used to fill those tubes with gas... You don't believe how high a workbench can jump...
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Glad to be an amateur

Ed Blagden

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Re: Fire Tennis
« Reply #3 on: November 14, 2013, 12:34:41 am »

Hmm - to be honest I think the "prank" may be a bit more controlled than it appears.  These guys have 2.9 million YT subscribers and access to $150,000 worth of high speed video camera so there may be a bit of method behind their madness.

Rob I know what you mean about the danger of fumes.  When I was 17 and studying A level chemistry I took a short cut in the lab and heated some ethanol directly over a bunsen burner rather than in a water bath.  The resulting ka-boom earned me brief legendary status.  Fortunately I was wearing safety glasses but had to grow my hair back.

Here is another of their experiments: not dangerous but kind of cool.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WKU7gG_ApU
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Jeremy Roussak

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Re: Fire Tennis
« Reply #4 on: November 14, 2013, 03:47:25 am »

Gas stations come to mind, and warnings to switch off cellphones.

Those warnings were always nonsense, Rob, as I'm sure you know.

Jeremy
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Rob C

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Re: Fire Tennis
« Reply #5 on: November 14, 2013, 05:35:21 am »

Those warnings were always nonsense, Rob, as I'm sure you know.

Jeremy


As I see no 'smiley' I assume you mean that seriously.

In my view, anything that includes a battery can cause a spark. Switching off engines and onboard 'entertainment' at pumps makes sense too; I'll never forget the moment that Benetton F1 car burst into flames in the pits, though I'm willing to accept that spillage onto red-hot mechanicals probably had more to do with that event than coursing electricity...

Rob C

Jeremy Roussak

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Re: Fire Tennis
« Reply #6 on: November 14, 2013, 03:29:07 pm »

As I see no 'smiley' I assume you mean that seriously.

In my view, anything that includes a battery can cause a spark. Switching off engines and onboard 'entertainment' at pumps makes sense too; I'll never forget the moment that Benetton F1 car burst into flames in the pits, though I'm willing to accept that spillage onto red-hot mechanicals probably had more to do with that event than coursing electricity...

Rob C

Yes, I meant it seriously. The voltages in mobile phones, and the energy in the radio signals, simply isn't sufficient to cause sparks or to ignite fumes. There's infinitely more danger from the chap next to you starting his engine to leave.

F1 has a wide variety of dangers not commonly found outside the track / pits!

Jeremy
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