Ok so thursday I spent the entire day on my futon watching a marathon of mythbusters (oh what a life I lead).

They had all the big ones on

JATO + Car (every car company has tried this and with 4 Jatos the fastest a regular car has ever gotten was 180mph, around 600mph with 24 on a rocket car)

Penny off the empire state building (sorry the terminal speed of a penny is only 65mph it wont even leave a bruise, even if shot out of a gun at around 2250mph or 3000fps a penny wont cause any major damage)

little mikey dieing from poprocks and soda (hes still alive, and no it can't)

bride cooked by microwaves in tanning salons (tanning salons dont use microwaves, and it still wouldn't work if they did)

but then they got to cell phones blowing up gas stations (even in the most artificial setup a cell phone will not cause a fire) but they did point out that in the last 10 years there have been about 150 gas station fires, but the wierd fact was that 78% of them were women. So women be careful when filling up.










ok ok it actually turns out they are started by static electricity, women are more likely to get back in the car while filling up, picking up a new static charge. So you should stay out of the car while filling up or make sure you ground your self before aproching the nozzle (just touch the car). If you do start one move away quickly (DO NOT pull the nozzle out) and alert the station attendant, your gas tank is actually designed for this.

Oh and they did the pissing on the third rail one. (if you are barefoot, wet, the ground is wet, you have the urinay cannal of a clidesdale horse, you grab the third rail with both hands and start peeing on it from 3 inches away, YES you could recieve a leathal shock.)

man I seriously got into repeated arguements with an ex about the cell phone at the gas station thing, he continued to think I wa a moron for talking on it at the pump, I told him I have NEVEr heard that and it sounds rediculous......I shoock myself everyday with satic at work, mnever with my cell phone........glad to know that nce again I was right.

Yeah, the cell phone starting a gasoline fire thing is pretty silly.

I wonder if it's even possible under laboratory conditions for this to happen. The gasoline vapor would have to make it into a relay inside the cell phone in exactly the right mixture, and there would have to be enough of it in the rest of the phone to create a flame path...

And cell phones don't have a lot of open space inside - they pack the electronics pretty tightly, and most of what's in there doesn't have anything that would create a spark gap at all.

Gasoline is actually much less dangerous than most people believe - the vapor concentration has to be just right for a spark to ignite it, and if that isn't there - well, you can actually extinguish a flame in it.

Now, don't go trying that - if the vapor concentration happens to be right as you're getting the flame close, you'll get a very nice fire.

I think 150 gas station fires in 10 years proves the safety pretty well - you're far more likely to be struck by lightning.

I'll admit that I believed the gasoline/cell phone one but only because it was told to me BY a gas station attendant. No doubt they were only parroting what was told to them by their manager who might have been an idiot. Good to know I don't HAVE to get off of my phone to pump gas. Hehe...guess I have to admit my boy was right AGAIN. I hate admitting when he's right.

Yeah, the attendant was probably parroting all the warning stickers that have been put on gas station pumps across the nation.

Vader ~ You reminded me of when I'd put cigarettes out in gasoline in winter. Far less chance of any of it evaporating then.

yeah they showed all the stickers to show how a urban legend can become very perswasive.....persvasive.....uh influentual.(spell pls even the spellcheck couldn't spell it.)

[quote="
I think 150 gas station fires in 10 years proves the safety pretty well - you're far more likely to be struck by lightning.[/quote]

You're absolutely correct. An example - in florida, 1 in ~850,000 chance to be hit by lightning. Winning the lottery, 1 in ~24 million. So you're what, 30 times more likely to be hit by lightning than win the lottery. Gotta love this country eh?