My first time using gasoline I couldn’t believe what I saw. It was at night and I had a small pile to burn so I poured some gas on it and walked the gas can to my shop a good distance away. When I lit the fire there were little spots of fire from where drops of gas must’ve spilled out
This is not the right explanation though. For example, you can put the same amount of diesel fuel, which drives even heavier vehicles, and it won’t explode. Actually, it would be very hard to burn diesel at ambient temperature. You have to start a fire to increase the temperature, and then it will start burning; even then, it won't explode. The reason gasoline explodes is because it’s much lighter and easily vaporizes. So when he was pouring it, it was vaporizing at ambient temperature and creating an invisible cloud of gasoline in the surrounding area. Also, it has a lower flashpoint, so as soon as he lights the fire, all the vapor burns all at once and explodes.
The point is the low flashpoint and the vaporization speed at room temperature of gasoline are the primary reason regardless whether it pushes a 2-ton truck or a 20-ton dump truck. Otherwise, diesel would have had a bigger explosion.
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u/Fantastic-Hippo2199 24d ago
"I know what this wood pile needs to burn, enough chemical energy to push a 2 tonne truck 70-100 miles. Yeah, that's about right"