Terminator 2: Judgement Day - A for Effort Jimbo, but It's Still Wrong
Right before the semi tow truck explodes there's a shot of a battery cable hitting the fuel tank.
Although I admire Jim Cameron's striving for accuracy by including this shot (and showing that vehicles don't just blow up for no reason) it's still a mistake because diesel fuel WILL NOT explode like gasoline.
True, diesel does not explode like normal fuel, but it is more flammable. Confused? Good. In fire, it does not go bang, cars dont even go up in orange falmes like that, thats just hollywood for you. Pyros use other more flammable chemicals to explode cars in films. Car explosions usually dont get so big and bright. But Diesel, if alight, will burn longer than normal fuel, because of the higher concentration of oil. So, dont go making diesel bombs, it wont work. It will only make a flame thats hotter than others and is more difficult to put out. Whatever you believe, dont think that diesel is not flammable, if you do, then pause to think about your stupidity. If it doesnt burn, how can the truck pistons move when ignited by the sparkpug? DUH!
Well. Aren't we all so smart here? 1) Hollywood explosions use the basest of components under a special principle. They use black powder (available since the 1500's), and gasoline. When the black powder explodes, it rapidly disperses the gasoline into a vaporous cloud (called atomizing, like a cologne, or perfume sprayer). After this occurs, the fumes, and small droplets of gasoline are ignited by the lit powder. The combination of atomizing, and igniting the gas fumes creates the familiar orange fireball. 2) While diesel is not explosive, or flammable under normal conditions (you can drop a lit match into a bucket of diesel fuel, and the match will go out!), the principle behind the diesel engine relies on COMPRESSION. When diesel fuel is compressed, it explodes easily. The fuel is sprayed into the cylinder, where a glow plug is constantly lit. If it were flammable, this would not be a working design, but the piston is pushed up, and compresses the fuel/air mixture, and the glow plug ignites the compressed diesel fuel, completing the process.
So, in short, you're still right, the truck wouldn't have exploded.
If Diesels do not have spark plugs, how does the truck move? Foot Powered Fred Flinstone Style? HA HA HA. And as for the comment above made by Stiletto, (this part has nothing to do with diesels) are you saying that Hollywood does not exaggerate explosions a little? Surely Stiletto you sound like a smart guy, but I cannot see you believing that rubbish. I have seen a real car explode on both TV(real documentary as opposed to fake movie) and in real life(friends pushed a car that broke down valued at about $50 Australian into an abandoned valley, and doused it with petrol, only to see it explode 15 minutes later, not 15 seconds later) and I must confess, I was disapointed, I was expecting a James Bond explosion with a big orange fireball just like every other movie I know, but I saw nothing. All I saw was a very quick bright-orange flash, (yes, it was loud though), and I saw parts of the car flying out from underneath in all directions(luckily we ducked for cover), with the car violently jumping a quarter of a meter of the ground. The rest of car was scorched with the slow but sure burn of the petrol flames. Instead of the big orange fireball, I was cheated with a smelly grey gas cloud as a result. The car was even half-full with petrol. So you can tell me all the scientific names of every component the pyro-technicians use, but I can tell you, they add more explosive cocktails to the mixture for the nice big 'ooh, ahh' effect at the movies. I saw heaps of pyro shows, and I know that 90% of the stuff they use is not found in a normal vehicle. Do as your mother says, and do not believe everything you see on TV (except the Internet).
This is for all you people arguing about diesel having spark plugs or not. I am a mechanic by trade, so I will explain how diesel fuel ignites. In the combustion chamber (where the pistons go up and down) of a normal, petrol engine that you would find in your common ford etc, there ARE spark plugs to ignite the fuel, however with diesel, the compression ratio of the cylinders is so great that the heat of the compressed air fuel mix ignites it... tricky yeah? Anyways, the whole reason many 4 wheel drives have diesel engines is because if you were to get a diesel engine wet when you are driving thru rivers or whatever, there is no spark plug lead to short out, so diesels can work in more intense conditions because THEY DON'T HAVE SPARK PLUGS. They are also used in ALL heavy commercial vehicles because of the incredible TORQUE they create and good economy... ... i hope that explained it!!!
Hahaha to Matrix. I actually paid attention in my 9th grade science class and learned that diesel engines don't use spark plugs.
And Guy, I hope you're kidding. Jimbo is a nickname for Jim, which is a nickname for James.
Anyway, yeah, you're right, diesel = no exploding.
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