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Post by ironhold on Apr 12, 2014 18:57:37 GMT
I figure this will be a nice thread relating to myths from the Transformers franchise. "Prescott's Bots"Transformers: Rescue Bots episode #33 Original US Air Date: 5 April 2014 In the episode, a trucker loses control of his rig after blowing through a red light. The trucker crashes into a group of trees, and the spilled gasoline from his rig ignites, setting off a forest fire. Due to a contaminant that was introduced into the town's water supply, the reservoir and the waterways that feed it are choked up; the only source of water is whatever can be drawn from the ocean, but there's only one helicopter available and it's several minutes to the coast. As a stop-gap, one of the characters proposes using maple tree sap in order to extinguish the fire. The logic is that tree sap is mostly water, and the "harvest" season for sap has just recently begun; if they can find enough sap that has not yet been processed down into syrup, then it just might be sufficient to put out the fire. Thing is, the sap should also have at least some significant amount of sugar, which is known to be flammable. So - would the tree sap have stopped the fire, or would it have just fueled it? (Note that the sap is shown as being thin enough to be shot through a fire hose.) I'm thinking that, as controls, we should see a fire put out with "normal" methods such as city water (the kind from an everyday fire hydrant) and foam. Next up would be the extreme end of the equation, which would be pancake syrup. From there, the team would test the raw tree sap itself to see if the water overcomes the sugar. As an aside, the team could also test how effective saltwater is. |
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Post by the light works on Apr 13, 2014 1:18:31 GMT
I figure this will be a nice thread relating to myths from the Transformers franchise. "Prescott's Bots"Transformers: Rescue Bots episode #33 Original US Air Date: 5 April 2014 In the episode, a trucker loses control of his rig after blowing through a red light. The trucker crashes into a group of trees, and the spilled gasoline from his rig ignites, setting off a forest fire. Due to a contaminant that was introduced into the town's water supply, the reservoir and the waterways that feed it are choked up; the only source of water is whatever can be drawn from the ocean, but there's only one helicopter available and it's several minutes to the coast. As a stop-gap, one of the characters proposes using maple tree sap in order to extinguish the fire. The logic is that tree sap is mostly water, and the "harvest" season for sap has just recently begun; if they can find enough sap that has not yet been processed down into syrup, then it just might be sufficient to put out the fire. Thing is, the sap should also have at least some significant amount of sugar, which is known to be flammable. So - would the tree sap have stopped the fire, or would it have just fueled it? (Note that the sap is shown as being thin enough to be shot through a fire hose.) I'm thinking that, as controls, we should see a fire put out with "normal" methods such as city water (the kind from an everyday fire hydrant) and foam. Next up would be the extreme end of the equation, which would be pancake syrup. From there, the team would test the raw tree sap itself to see if the water overcomes the sugar. As an aside, the team could also test how effective saltw*ter is. I can give you some pretty solid and factual answers; which will be no fun at all. however, apart from being a little bit obscure and a lot bad at math, it would actually be a good myth to test. short answer: yeah, right; yes; no, okay if you are willing to sacrifice every piece of equipment that handles it. slightly longer answer: raw sap has way more water than sugar, but there's no way they will get enough of it to put out a fire of any size. (you typically have to allow maple to season for a full year before burning it for firewood, but a forest fire will turn standing maple trees into fireballs) |
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Post by the light works on Apr 13, 2014 1:21:04 GMT
(and our standing order is that if, for ANY reason, we ever have to use seawater for extinguishment, to redtag every piece of equipment involved for a complete teardown and cleaning; because otherwise, it will all rust.)
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Post by kharnynb on Apr 15, 2014 20:01:49 GMT
Forest fires are rarely stopped with water anyway, mostly the water is just used to slow the fire, giving the crews enough time to start counterfires and make "fuel-free" zones.
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Post by the light works on Apr 16, 2014 0:12:12 GMT
Forest fires are rarely stopped with water anyway, mostly the water is just used to slow the fire, giving the crews enough time to start counterfires and make "fuel-free" zones. right. as I recall, our rule of thumb is it will take 3 gallons per square foot to put out a structure fire. considering an acre is 43560 square feet, a modest 50 acre wildfire would take 6.5 million gallons of water to directly extinguish. the last one I worked, we estimated my dad and I brought in 45,000 gallons of water over 7 hours, running two of our four tenders. |
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Post by ironhold on Apr 29, 2014 22:04:40 GMT
"The Golden Lagoon"The Transformers episode #41 Original US Air Date: 4 November 1985 The Autobots (good guys) and Decepticons (bad guys) both find a "lagoon" (the episode's term) consisting of naturally-occurring liquid electrum. The bad guys discover that if they dive in, then they'll be completely coated with the stuff. The coating is enough to resist weapons fire (an assorted mix of ballistic projectiles, missiles, and laser beams), but in time eventually wears off. When the bad guys realize that the good guys also know about the lagoon, they fire off a weapons barrage into the mix that causes the lagoon to explode. The terrain around the lagoon is completely devastated by the blast. *Is it possible for electrum to occur naturally in a liquid state? The terrain around the lagoon is a generic forest environment capable of supporting rabbits and birds, and so the abundant temperature is likely not high enough to melt it; there is likewise nothing in the episode to suggest that the lagoon was created by geothermal activity. *How toxic would electrum be to vegetation and animal life? *Would coating something in electrum actually provide a protective barrier?
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Post by ironhold on Apr 29, 2014 22:14:49 GMT
"The Dormant Volcano Mysteriously Erupts"The Headmasters, episode 12 Original Japanese Air Date: 25 September 1987 The Decepticons have deliberately triggered a dormant volcano located in the Andes Mountains. The Decepticons know full well that the Autobots will send people to help evacuate the nearby town, and have sent shock troopers to the area in order to ambush the evacuation crew. When the volcano erupts, the combination of ash and moisture in the air produces a red cloud. One of the Autobots transformers into a fighter jet and creates a whirlwind effect that throws the ash cloud onto the Decepticons, driving them away. This gives a team of Autobots who transform into trains enough time to evacuate the villagers, but due to the interference of the Decepticons the Autobots were not able to save the village itself. *Can a cloud of volcanic ash even turn red in the first place?
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Post by silverdragon on Apr 30, 2014 5:36:45 GMT
If the cloud contains enough Iron, yes it will "Rust" into red.
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Post by ironhold on Jun 1, 2014 22:17:57 GMT
"Buddy System"Transformers: Rescue Bots episode #41Original US air date: 31 May 2014 In the episode, a foul-up results in a technology facility and a zoo getting each others' orders. This leads to a series of snakes accidentally being let loose on an island where snakes of any stripe are not native. While most of the snakes remain inside the island's one town (where they were accidentally released), a boa constrictor is inadvertently released into the forest, where several children are going on a nature hike. The leader of the hike, an elementary school teacher with a degree in botany, has the children hide amidst a patch of wild garlic plants. The garlic repels the boa, keeping the children safe until the local emergency services personnel show up with a containment unit for the animal. Myth: Can snakes, especially boas, be repelled by garlic? The team has already tested cayenne pepper, and so this would ultimately be a revisit... if Tory can handle it.
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Post by the light works on Jun 2, 2014 4:03:35 GMT
"Buddy System"Transformers: Rescue Bots episode #41Original US air date: 31 May 2014 In the episode, a foul-up results in a technology facility and a zoo getting each others' orders. This leads to a series of snakes accidentally being let loose on an island where snakes of any stripe are not native. While most of the snakes remain inside the island's one town (where they were accidentally released), a boa constrictor is inadvertently released into the forest, where several children are going on a nature hike. The leader of the hike, an elementary school teacher with a degree in botany, has the children hide amidst a patch of wild garlic plants. The garlic repels the boa, keeping the children safe until the local emergency services personnel show up with a containment unit for the animal. Myth: Can snakes, especially boas, be repelled by garlic? The team has already tested cayenne pepper, and so this would ultimately be a revisit... if Tory can handle it. testing could be a challenge - and the question would be whether it would require active repulsion, casual aversion, or simple masking of prey scent to be a win. I believe boas tend to be more ambush hunters than stalkers, so to my mind if the boa didn't hang out in the garlic I would consider it plausible |
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Post by silverdragon on Jun 15, 2014 11:35:42 GMT
There is something I remember from something about snakes, they rely on vibrations.
Their sense of smell is limited when in comparison to other senses.
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Post by the light works on Jun 15, 2014 13:51:32 GMT
There is something I remember from something about snakes, they rely on vibrations. Their sense of smell is limited when in comparison to other senses. I think that depends on the snake. I checked the interwebz: reptilis.net/serpentes/senses.html it appears their sense of smell is limited only in comparison to their ability to pick up vibrations. - according to the information on that sigte, it is vision that is commonly a snake's throwaway sense. (like common sense in humans  ) |
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Post by ironhold on Mar 7, 2015 21:21:21 GMT
"The Attack of Humungado"Transformers: Rescue Bots episode 64 US air date: 7 March 2015 A gust of wind causes a cardboard stand-up to fall over on top of what looks like a reel-to-reel movie player at a drive-in theater. The waste heat from the reel-to-reel causes the stand-up to ignite, and soon the entire projection room is in flames. Have there ever been any reports of reel-to-reel units getting that hot?
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Post by the light works on Mar 8, 2015 2:33:38 GMT
"The Attack of Humungado"Transformers: Rescue Bots episode 64 US air date: 7 March 2015 A gust of wind causes a cardboard stand-up to fall over on top of what looks like a reel-to-reel movie player at a drive-in theater. The waste heat from the reel-to-reel causes the stand-up to ignite, and soon the entire projection room is in flames. Have there ever been any reports of reel-to-reel units getting that hot? back when the film was made of celluloid, it was not uncommon for the film, itself, to catch fire if the projector stalled. |
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Post by ironhold on Mar 8, 2015 3:15:10 GMT
The stand-up was the source of ignition, not the film.
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Post by the light works on Mar 8, 2015 14:48:17 GMT
The stand-up was the source of ignition, not the film. the point is that the projector lamp, particularly in older projection systems, puts out a lot of heat. the only way the film survived the heat was because it was moving so fast. yo do something that will block the ability to dissipate the heat, and a fire is all too plausible. here, I have seen a fire started by one of those cheap halogen floodlights |
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Post by ironhold on Mar 8, 2015 23:43:29 GMT
It made contact with the housing for the mechanism, and not the lamp itself.
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Post by the light works on Mar 9, 2015 1:30:37 GMT
It made contact with the housing for the mechanism, and not the lamp itself. the projectors and theatre lights I have worked with were not equipped with cryogenic cooling systems, which meant the waste heat was vented directly out of the projector or theatre light. for that matter, I have been on a fire repair project where a recessed can (pot light) had an insulating box covering the can - and caught the box on fire. |
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Post by wvengineer on Mar 9, 2015 3:08:15 GMT
Real maple syrup is common in my area. I have actually taken a class on taping trees. The reality wouldn't help the myth.
First off, it takes a LOT of sap to make syrup. On average you have to boil down 40-45 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup.
Next, sap production is slow. A good sugar maple will give you 1-2 gallons of sap a day per tap. The rule of thump is 1 tap for every foot in diameter the tree it at about 4 feet above ground level.
There are several maple farms in the area that have hundreds of trees and some rather complex collection systems. They can collect the sap from over a dozen large trees and have it all flow into a single line of 1/4" tubing to a central collection tank.
Finally, we had a small forest fire a couple years ago where a syrup farm's boiler system got out of control and caught their trees on fire. The trees burned just fine despite being in key sap production time.
So, using tree sap to fight a fire, no way.
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Post by the light works on Mar 9, 2015 3:13:28 GMT
Real maple syrup is common in my area. I have actually taken a class on taping trees. The reality wouldn't help the myth. First off, it takes a LOT of sap to make syrup. On average you have to boil down 40-45 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. Next, sap production is slow. A good sugar maple will give you 1-2 gallons of sap a day per tap. The rule of thump is 1 tap for every foot in diameter the tree it at about 4 feet above ground level. There are several maple farms in the area that have hundreds of trees and some rather complex collection systems. They can collect the sap from over a dozen large trees and have it all flow into a single line of 1/4 tubing to a central collection tank. Finally, we had a small forest fire a couple years ago where a syrup farm's boiler system got out of control and caught their trees on fire. The trees burned just fine despite being in key sap production time. So, using tree sap to fight a fire, no way. so, how many gallons does their central collection tank hold? edit: by which, I mean how many gallons of sap would they have in a best-case scenario? |
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