Re: Bullets + Gas tanks. The truth?

[Robert "J." Hansen <rjhansen@xxxxxxxx>]

> > Once the gas spurted out the
> > fifty-cal hole at high pressure, though, it'd aerosolize and at that
> 
>        And with between 8,000-15,000 gallons of fuel, that could blow pretty 
> high and rain fire for a few blocks

Nah.  Only the fuel that had already mixed with oxygen would go up in
flames; the fuel inside the tank wouldn't burn, because there's no
oxidizer.  If the explosion ruptured the tank, okay, then you'd have a
major fire problem--but since most of that fuel would be in a liquid
state, not gaseous, you still wouldn't get a Hollywood-style explosion.
By the time 8,000 gallons of fuel get pushed out a fifty-caliber hole,
most of the 8,000 gallons have already dispersed on the wind or is
accumulating on the ground.

A fuel-air bomb works because it aerosolizes a lot of fuel in a very
short time, and then detonates the highly combustible rich fuel-air
mixture.  But an FAE doesn't work in high winds, because the aerosolized
fuel becomes too sparse for an explosion.