IF I were TO DROP A MATCH INTO A HUGE BARREL OF GAS WOULD IT DROWN OUT OR WOULD IT IGNITE?

Answer 1

It's all about the fumes.

"Fumes", for the purposes of this answer, are gasoline vapors in an oxygen-rich environment (e.g., air).

Liquid gasoline by itself will usually "drown" a lit match. You need oxygen to sustain a fire, so if there aren't any fumes, the flame will die as the match becomes submerged, and loses its oxygen supply.

If there are gasoline fumes present, however, you'll lose a bit more than your eyebrows when the fireball comes.

Note that this is how we get cars to run -- by injecting a fine, vapor-like spray of gasoline into an air-filled cylinder.

Answer 2

Probably drown out as you need oxygen as well for it to burn.
The other thing is that the moment you open the lid of the barrel the gas isn't going to stay put, it'll diffuse with the oxygen in the air until it forms a combustable mixture in which case if your not quick enough on the drop it will ignite. The rate of which the gas diffuses and the time taken to reach an ignitable mixture will vary from gas to gas.

Oh yeah and it won't work unless the match is lit either.
and if your gas is nitrogen, helium, fluorine etc then it's also not going to work. I assume you mean hydrogen methane or some other combustable gas

Answer 3

It depends. If the gasoline were at a cool enough temperature such that there was no vapor cloud of gasoline above the barrel, the match should get drowned in the barrel.

You need 3 things to have a succesful fire, an ignition source, air and a flamable material. As you warm gasoline, more molecules jump to the vapor phase from the liquid. When you have the correct ratio of gasoline vapor to air, you can start a fire.

Answer 4

I assume you mean liquid gasoline. And that you mean the match is lit. What is flammable is the gasoline vapor mixed with air. Under normal conditions, the evaporation rate and surface area would be sufficient to create a significant region of fuel/air mixture. Obviously, without the evaporation, it may extinguish the flame. But, gasoline evaporates very well in most terrestrial environments, so I wouldn't expect success. Oh, don't do this. A barrel of gas, once burning, is not simple to put out without foaming flame retardant. And the hotter it gets, the faster it evaporates....

Answer 5

First, you should not try to do this on your own. If by gas you mean Gasoline, then it is possible to quickly extinguish the match in the liquid gasoline. Liquid gasoline is not as flammable as vaporized gas. It is the volatile gasoline vapors which are very flammable. This is because the vapor is a mixture of vaporized gasoline and oxygen. once the vapor is ignited then the liquid gasoline will provide the fuel to keep burning.

Answer 6

Depends on how long you let it sit out in the barrel. Assuming it's an open top barrel, if you let it sit long enough to aclimatize to the outside temps then you can toss a match/lit cigarette in and it not catch fire. Because by then the fumes are gone or are dispersed enough that you don't have them to catch fire. I've seen old men do that with buckets of gasoline.

Answer 7

It would depend if the gas were inert or flammable. If you mean gasoline, it would depend if the barrel is full or not. If full, it would probably drown out. If not full, the match would probably ignite the gas vapors

Answer 8

It depends if oxygen it available.
But gasoline is so flammable that the match would never make it to the liquid, but would instead ignite in the fumes it puts out. Mixed in with the fumes is the atmosphere, which contains the oxygen.

Answer 9

I'm assuming it is a lit match.it will ignite because gas is flammable and in fact it happens here in Tulsa a week ago when lightning strike a 5 million gas tank, that sucker explodes like a bomb and the flames were seen over a 5 miles a way

Answer 10

Both are correct to some degree. Unleaded gasoline would ignite due to fumes. Diesel fuel would put out the match.