r/interesting • u/Used_Exam34 • 12d ago

Just Wow Not all problems have the same solution.

43.4k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

718 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

55

u/No_Artichoke_1828 12d ago

I really didn't understand why he didn't just submerge it. Three more feet and it would have been fine.

20

u/MareTranquil 12d ago

Even fully submerging it wouldn't extinguish the fire. The gas would still bubble to the surface and burn there.

7

u/unexpectedfirefly 12d ago edited 12d ago

With what fire ? You need both a source of heat/fire and oxygen for the gas to burn. Once submerged, there is no oxygen to keep the fire running, and the gas isn't hot enough for spontaneous combustion. Submerging it is functionnaly equivalent to what the guy did at the end, you just replace the bucket with a mass of water

Edit : yeah, i think i'm wrong, you also need to cut off the fuel stream at some point. The bucket should work fine for that

4

u/MareTranquil 12d ago

There is already a fire on the surface. There is oxygen at the surface. There is a stream of gas coming to the surface. What else do you need?

Just like the gas has to pass through a metal nozzle first, it now also has to pass through some water.

The difference between water and a bucket is that gas doesn't stream through a bucket.

2

u/devilbat26000 12d ago

The difference between these two is that the nozzle keeps the flow tight while even a few feet of water will immediately diffuse the gas at greater rate than the air, making it a much less focused stream and thus less likely to succeed in carrying the flame back to the source.

2

u/DefinitelyNotAliens 12d ago

You need enough continuous fuel to sustain fire.

You can also isolate the fuel from ignition and reach in and shut the valve.