Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site x.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!harvard!godot!mit-eddie!cybvax0!frog!x!john
From: john@x.UUCP (John Woods)
Newsgroups: net.misc,net.physics
Subject: Re: Hydrogen (isn't flammible?!?)
Message-ID: <453@x.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 3-Apr-85 10:57:15 EST
Article-I.D.: x.453
Posted: Wed Apr  3 10:57:15 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 7-Apr-85 09:31:19 EST
References: <708@mhuxt.UUCP> <643@houxa.UUCP> <359@mnetor.UUCP>
Organization: Charles River Data Systems, Framingham MA
Lines: 19
Xref: linus net.misc:6279 net.physics:2171

> liquid too high to be practical in a car?  In contrast, propane is
> very easy to keep liquid.)  The consequences of a leak are probably
> somewhat more spectacular.

Not necessarily.  Hydrogen is both highly volatile (as a liquid) and lighter
than air (as a gas).  It turns out that it doesn't hang around in flammable
concentrations for very long (unless you put a gasbag around it -- and if
you watch the film footage of the Hindenburg (which I did recently), the
hydrogen didn't burn very long--likely most of it just escaped).  Gasoline
(vapor) and propane, on the other hand, hang around in much higher
concentrations for greater lengths of time, hence they are easier to convince
to explode (and give you more time to do it).
-- 
John Woods, Charles River Data Systems, Framingham MA, (617) 626-1101
...!decvax!frog!john, ...!mit-eddie!jfw, jfw%mit-ccc@MIT-XX.ARPA

Think of it as "evolution inaction".

There are no unintentional spelling errors in this article.