Try this little experiment at home, in the outdoors, with enough
access to lots of sand so you can douse the flames.
Make a little steel bridge, with bricks under each end holding
up a long, thin piece of steel (you can use a thin steel bar, or
flat section, or a steel ruler).
Put a few bricks or dead weights at the middle of the span of
that bridge, to heavily load it, just to the point where if you add
more weight, the bridge would buckle up and collapse.
Like this: (ignore the dots)
............BB
_________________... (thin steel)
BB........fire.........BB..
(B = Bricks)
Then put a big metal tray of kerosene or aviation grade jet fuel
under those central bricks, and light it up with burning piece
of cardboard or newspaper to create a big fire (like a bonfire).
Now wait to see what happens.
Does the bridge collapse due to the heat of the fire?
You could also try this fire experiment with a vertical steel
column that is very heavily loaded.
2007-11-13
21:16:43
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17 answers
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asked by
Anonymous
in
Military