Monday, June 23, 2008

Swamp Fire

Boski has been having difficulty breathing lately. The area has been struck by brush fires miles away but the warm south wind that seems to persist in the summer time has caused all the smoke and fumes up our way. This is bullshit. Why can't this shit be put out? I understand there are no roads into these swamps. But fuck its bad. I see on the news a few helicopters flying around with the buckets, I mean my kids can do that shit. What we need is something better than this mickey mouse attempts. Lets get some modified 747s or C-5 Galaxys and knock this fire out. I wonder how long the fire would last getting like 25,000+ gallons of water dumped on it. I also wonder what would happen if say someone got hit by that much water, what would that feel like? Could you survive? I think not, but maybe I should submit this to mythbusters.

8 comments:

Poorman said...

i think you would live personally....you might need a breathing mechanism tho

Anonymous said...

sounds like a case of black lung. i also think it would be possible to live through, but i dont think a breathing mechanism would be needed

Poorman said...

i mean it might take 25,000 gallons of water a long time to be poured on you....long time to hold your breath

Anonymous said...

it would all be dropped in 1 shot though, youve seen it on tv. plus you could still breathe, like in the shower

Poorman said...

well if they do it like on tv, all of the 25,000 gallons may not hit the person, which would mean the test was inaccurate....im thinkin the person would need to be placed in a small chamber and the water would be funneled in that way

Anonymous said...

in that case i agree, a breathing apparatus would potentially be necessary. i also think the impact could possibly be fatal, depending on the diameter of said chamber and the height from which the water is dropped

Staboski said...

When I posed the question I was going more with surviving the brunt of the impact. I know the water when it leaves the plane is disbursed over an area, but even if a small amount of it hit a person could they survive? Lets figure one gallon of water comes in roughly at 8.35 pounds in weight. Leaving an airplane flying a couple hundred feet above the ground probably at 200-300 miles a hour. Lets work on the physics of this. I'll post my calcs after I work out some scenarios.

term said...

the most accurate way to test this is to literally spray someone with a hose at a velocity that is equal to the terminal velocity of water falling through air. the water would be dispersed enough that i doubt breathing would be the issue.

also, calculating the velocity of water is not a simple physics calc. depending on the height of the drop, the water would hit its terminal velocity in the air. the terminal velocity would depend heavily on the droplet size of the water, velocity of the plane, wind speed, air pressure, etc. also, droplet size (and therefore terminal velocity) depends mostly on the surface tension of the water (temperature & composition dependent).

in my opinion, spray someone directly on the head with a fire hose and judge the damage. if they are close to death, plausible. if the water would need like triple the speed to cause damage, then myth busted.