"DSK" wrote in message
...
"Maxprop" wrote | An explosion is nothing more than an extremely rapid
burn.

Ellen MacArthur wrote:
Not quite right (I think).

Yes, it is right.

Here's how I understand it. A burn starts at one end
of the cylinder near the spark plug and goes down towards the top of the
piston. It expands evenly and pushes the piston down. An explosion starts
somewhere in the middle of the fuel/air and pushes outwards really fast
in all directions.

Why would an explosion start in a different place? It originates at the
spark plug, doesn't it?

It wastes energy and is too fast so it knocks against the piston and
sometimes can even blow off a head gasket.

Yes, that's also right.

An explosion isn't really a burn.


Yes it is. Both in the context of internal combustion, and other
circumstances. Dynamite, for example, is a highly combustible substance
that burns very very rapidly.

We used to use an explosive called HDP (2 and 3 pound charges) to control
avalanches (set them off, in actuality) at Breckenridge in the 70s when I
was a pro ski patrolman there. The company that made the charges referred
to HDPs 'burn rate' of 24,000 feet per second. Even primacord has a 'burn
rate' of about 20k feet per second.

This is the first post of Ellen's that seems to dispel the notion that "she"
is actually Neal in verbal drag. Neal would know better.

Max