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| Shooting a car |
Safety of the Gas
Tank
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| The three things required for a fire |
Will The Gas Tank Of A
Car Explode If You Fire A Bullet At It?
Ashish
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| Blow up a car bullet meme |
It may make for an incredible special effect, but is there
any truth in that, or is it just another myth propagated by Hollywood in
the minds of normal people?
Safety of the Gas Tank
It turns out that you’re not the only person
that watches movies; government authorities do too!
Since road accidents may involve vehicles
experiencing unusual stress upon impact, regulatory authorities enforce
strict security standards to ensure that the gas tank is adequately reinforced.
Therefore, if something does happen on the road, the gas
tank will not be adversely impacted due to abrasive forces or heat generated
by friction following an accident (however, excessive stress poses a grave
threat to the gas tank).
In other words, breaching the reinforced cover of a gas
tank would itself be a challenging task, let alone setting it on fire!
Why a Fire is Unlikely
The three things required for a fire
Prior to an explosion, there has to be a fire (in other
words, enough heat to trigger an explosion).
You likely already know that for a fire to start, you need
three basic things: fuel, heat and an oxidizing agent (which in most cases is
oxygen, readily available in the air).
If any one of these agents is missing, a fire couldn’t
sustain itself.
In the case of a gas tank, there is simply not enough
oxygen inside the tank that could trigger a fire, and subsequently an
explosion.
As for the somewhat small amount of vapor that
is present in the tank, it’s still not enough to set off an explosion.
However, if a gas tank somehow does catch fire, it would
most likely be a nearly empty tank.
However, it’s still a very long shot, and therefore, quite
unlikely.
The Problem of the Bullet
Regular bullets, i.e., the bullets that go in guns that are
most commonly used and depicted in movies, are not made to ignite fires!
These bullets are not powerful enough to cause an ignition
and consequently set off an explosion.
To prove this, the Mythbusters team unleashed an
unrelenting barrage of bullets at the gas tank of a Cadillac to see whether an
explosion would follow.
Alas, despite how much we all hoped to see it, there was
none!
If a barrage of bullets couldn’t trigger an explosion, how
the heck could a single bullet from a revolver do it so easily, even if the
shooter were a trained intelligence agent?
It’s important to note that if you use incendiary bullets rather than
regular ones, then the case of an exploding gas tank becomes a bit more plausible,
since they are armor-piercing bullets and naturally quite explosive.
Still, it would take more than a single shot and a few
minutes for a tank to explode (in some instances) and the whole
process would be far more difficult then they make it seem in movies.
To conclude, there is no component in a regular bullet that
could cause an explosion.
It might be possible when high-power firearms are used, but
it’s definitely not going to be as simple as taking aim at the gas tank and
shooting a single bullet to turn a car into a raging fireball.
Ashish is a
Science graduate (Bachelor of Science) from Punjabi University (India). He
spends a lot of time watching movies, and an awful lot more time discussing
them. He likes Harry Potter and the Avengers, and obsesses over how thoroughly
Science dictates every aspect of life… in this universe, at least.
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| Incendiary bullets |
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