Noviz
Contributor
From the Mythbusters on popularmechanics.com...
"The forces at play with high-pressure tanks can be huge. If the energy stored in a workshop air-compressor tank is released all at once, it can hurt or kill a person. I once complained to our insurers, Why are you so fussy about the explosives we use on the show? Every day we make rigs using pressure tanks that are just as dangerous. Big mistake. Now they fuss about pressure tanks, too.
We're very careful with these tanks high and low pressure. We saw firsthand what they can do when testing that classic scene from the movie Jaws in which police chief Brody, played by Roy Scheider, shoots the scuba tank wedged in the mouth of Bruce the Shark with a rifle. The tank blows up, shredding the great white's head.
We tried it minus the shark. We placed an M-1 Garand rigged for remote-control firing in the MythBusters testing facility i.e., one of our scorched and battered shipping containers and aimed the rifle at a 3000-psi scuba tank. The .30-caliber bullet drilled a neat hole, and the tank rocketed around impressively but didn't blow up.
We like things to blow up. So we tried it again, this time with a cigarette-pack-size block of C4 explosive strapped to a fresh tank. When we detonated the C4, the blast from the ruptured tank was so powerful that it bulged the sides of the shipping container.
Another myth we tested was whether a high-pressure air tank would take off like a rocket if its valve was knocked off. So we dropped a large weight from a height of 10 ft. onto the valve of a tank at 2500 psi. The tank punched through two cinder block walls before it came to a dusty, battered rest. Scary stuff. "
Read the whole thing here..
"The forces at play with high-pressure tanks can be huge. If the energy stored in a workshop air-compressor tank is released all at once, it can hurt or kill a person. I once complained to our insurers, Why are you so fussy about the explosives we use on the show? Every day we make rigs using pressure tanks that are just as dangerous. Big mistake. Now they fuss about pressure tanks, too.
We're very careful with these tanks high and low pressure. We saw firsthand what they can do when testing that classic scene from the movie Jaws in which police chief Brody, played by Roy Scheider, shoots the scuba tank wedged in the mouth of Bruce the Shark with a rifle. The tank blows up, shredding the great white's head.
We tried it minus the shark. We placed an M-1 Garand rigged for remote-control firing in the MythBusters testing facility i.e., one of our scorched and battered shipping containers and aimed the rifle at a 3000-psi scuba tank. The .30-caliber bullet drilled a neat hole, and the tank rocketed around impressively but didn't blow up.
We like things to blow up. So we tried it again, this time with a cigarette-pack-size block of C4 explosive strapped to a fresh tank. When we detonated the C4, the blast from the ruptured tank was so powerful that it bulged the sides of the shipping container.
Another myth we tested was whether a high-pressure air tank would take off like a rocket if its valve was knocked off. So we dropped a large weight from a height of 10 ft. onto the valve of a tank at 2500 psi. The tank punched through two cinder block walls before it came to a dusty, battered rest. Scary stuff. "
Read the whole thing here..
