hey large, nice vid you rebel, keep sticking it out there.
They did the cell phone and the petrol bowser thing on Myth Busters
and found it to be Busted.
IE you can't blow yourself up with a mobile phone.
see this link:
http://www.themythbusters.net/episodes/2_e-Cell-Phone-Destruction-Silicone-Breasts-CD-ROM-Shattering.html
Cell phone explosion: BUSTED. A Cell Phone can not create a spark that will ignite gas.
So Large you were safe all along.
Sorry Will - that particular episode makes me mad every time I see it.
A cell phone absolutely
CAN generate a spark or enough heat to set off a fire. They (Mythbusters) just did a superficial test.
However, don't take me wrong. a properly operating phone
probably won't start a fire at a gas pump. The issue arises when the phone gets dropped, and has a loose battery connection, or develops a short. Or, maybe an IC or a capacitor fails. (an electrolytic capacitor is filled with a flamable liquid, and when they fail, they can over-pressurize & burst into flame. They CAN fail dramatically... There's really a wide range of failure modes which
could lead to a short circuit or overheat situation.
I've worked as a control engineer in hazardous environments (Class II, Divisions 1 and 2, hazardous dust) in chemical plants, with some pretty nasty stuff (the propellant in automotive air bags - it's essentially a solid rocket fuel.) The dust that is a byproduct of the manufacturing process is quite explosive, and I've seen some pretty significant fires and explosions that were caused by some pretty insignificant things. In just about every case, there was a chain of events that led to the explosion.
The area in and around a gas pump is classified as Class I Division 2, meaning that is a flamable gas or vapor, which is intermittently present.
Properly working equipment doesn't cause the problem. It's equipment that is in the
act of failing that is the
real issue.
It only takes about 1 watt of power at low voltages to be able to generate a spark. A cell phone battery can hold about 2 amp hours at apx 3 volts. A short circuit, inside or outside the battery can generate enough heat to set the thing on fire! 2 amps for an hour, 4 amps for 30 minutes, 8 amps for 15 minutes, and so on. Cut the time in half, and double the amperage possible in a failure. What happens when you've dropped a phone, and it has an intermittent connection, and it develops a short circuit? 20 or 30 amps, and an intermittent connection can, and does lead to sparks. If there's gasoline vapor present, boom...
Now, the equipment that is rated as intrinsicly safe (and, there ARE some phones that are) has power limiting circuits on any part of the equipment that could potentially, even in a failure mode, be exposed to the hazardous atmosphere. The rest of the device is sealed so that any spark is contained in the sealed area. And, the battery capacity is limited, and fail-safe circuits are added to limit short-circuit current flow.
Mythbusters did a
real disservice with that particular episode, and eventually, I expect that someone will be badly burned or killed while they're using a cell phone around a gas pump. There will be a chain of events that leads to their phone being faulty, and it will start a fire.
