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Unread 25-02-2010, 11:39
Bill_B Bill_B is offline
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Re: Kinda stupid question...

Quote:
Originally Posted by jmanela View Post
das hindenberg!
Popular myth about the famous accident associates hydrogen with the disaster. All that flame you see is from OTHER things burning. A spark inside a pure hydrogen vessel will not ignite anything. If the gas leaked out, it would escape the area by being pushed aside by in-rushing heavier gas (air) so the igniting spark would have to be very close to the leak to cause problems. Is there a Mythbusters episode about this?

BTW, German engineers knew full well of the flammability dangers of hydrogen but were prevented from using helium by a U.S. embargo that prevented selling the safer gas to Germany.