I weep for humanity

[Aeridus]

Meh, I thought it was... saw a couple movies where it did so.

Probably done by producers with limited scientific expertise.

[Gengar003]

I would love a commercially-available source of flammable gas under pressure. It will be the perfect addition to my homemade napalm.

What're you guys complaining about?

Say what now? Aside from the fact that Oxygen isn't flamable (as mentioned above) I'm having a hard time imagining how you would make anything like napalm out of it if it were.

I realize oxygen is not flammable a la hydrogen (Which also has amazing health benefits, so start canning it, America, ), but things burn better and bigger when there's more oxygen around. And no, oxygen's not an ingredient in napalm... But I imagine efforts to burn anything would be greatly helped along by a heaping helping of O2.

[Wilmo]

ok, O2 itself is not flammable, BUT if it is exposed to anything on fire, it'll speed up the reaction like crazy.

and YES N2O gas (laughing gas) is VERY flammable.

here comes the science...

Fire is nothing more than a rapid oxidizing chain reaction. When N2O burns, it produces N2 gas, which is VERY stable, so the energy difference between N2O and N2 (and O2 gas) is huge when released. Which spurs on the reaction, combusting more and more and more N2O (or anything else in the area, for that matter)

I put O2 in parenthesis because its not around very long. Between the heat caused by the reaction and the fact that it's a biproduct of the reaction, it'll most likely be consumed quickly to burn up even MORE N2O.

didnt want to do the rant thing, but just cant help it... I'm kinda a nerd like that.

[Aeridus]

Yay, I was right for a change!

I'm guessing this is under certain conditions though, I know that certain ways of storing laughing gas include storing the two gasses separately.

[Squidflakes]

old napalm, a la WW2, Korea, and the first couple of months of VietNam was a heady mix of napatha and palmetic acid. You can find those ingredients in canned shaving gels and and some shampoos, course, not in the same product.

new napalm, Super Napalm, Napalm 2, a la the rest of Viet Nam, and some Gulf War deployment is a classified formula.

[Honor]

Thank you, Wilmo... I ws waiting for someone to say the "fire = catastrpohic oxidization" bit.

*edit* dammit.

[ManaUser]

ok, O2 itself is not flammable, BUT if it is exposed to anything on fire, it'll speed up the reaction like crazy.

and YES N2O gas (laughing gas) is VERY flammable.

here comes the science...

Fire is nothing more than a rapid oxidizing chain reaction. When N2O burns, it produces N2 gas, which is VERY stable, so the energy difference between N2O and N2 (and O2 gas) is huge when released. Which spurs on the reaction, combusting more and more and more N2O (or anything else in the area, for that matter)

So you're saying it burns backwards? I'm sure such a reaction is possible, but it wouldn't be "burning" in the usual sense.

didnt want to do the rant thing, but just cant help it... I'm kinda a nerd like that.

Me too and normally your explanation would have convinced me, because I know I'm not exactly an expert, but why am I finding page after page saying it's non-flammable?

[Nithos]

Two part explination on all those google results. First, almost all of the first page of results are plagarized from some original source. They're different sites with the EXACT same text (they all "borrowed" some official FAQ). That one correctly states that it isn't flammable in the usual sense, but it is a powerful accellerant. Secondly, the first page I found that wasn't just talking about N2O for injection in to cars, and spoke of the nature of the gas itself stated that when exposed to heat it "decomposes explosivly." Apparently exploding because it's been exposed to heat or flame and decomposing in to more stable compounds, and exploding because it's exposed to heat or flame and is technically burning are slightly different.

Oh, and I just looked at the OSHA.gov link and it states that it's non-flammable at room tempurature. I think that's what the above sites were getting at - a spark presumably won't set it off in a normal room. But, in a burning building for example, it'll be warm enough to burn explosivly.

Gotta love the .gov

[RavenxDrake]

Correct. For those who don't know, when you talk about "Nitro" in a car, you're talking Nitrios Oxide. Now, I presume that it's pumped into the carburator(as opposed to just taking in air) to create a more efficient burning environment for the petrol(not being an official wrench-monkey, I'm not fully conversant with the details of the mechanics).

[Squidflakes]

Correct. For those who don't know, when you talk about "Nitro" in a car, you're talking Nitrios Oxide. Now, I presume that it's pumped into the carburator(as opposed to just taking in air) to create a more efficient burning environment for the petrol(not being an official wrench-monkey, I'm not fully conversant with the details of the mechanics).

Depends on the car. Only non-fuel injected piston engines have carburators. In fuel injected engines (most engines) the nitros oxide is introduced at the injector or slighty ahead in the intake manifold.

[RavenxDrake]

As I said, not a gearhead... so yeah, it's sprayed into the general vicinity of wherever the hell the fuel burns to make it burn more effeciently...

[Prince Amethyst]

Wow, I saw this "let's commercialize air in cans" idea in a Disney comic.

[Wilmo]

well, anytime you mix an oxidizer with something that can burn... it tends to... accelerate things.

heh, my bad, that's what I get for posting so early in the morning...