Breaking Bad scene leading to GQish question

[Nunzio_Tavulari]

The pyrotechnics union must be very powerful in Hollywood. Everyday items burst into flame at the slightest provocation.

[friedo]

@Superhal

After watching it, I would agree with this. This looks like a job for mythbusters.

When using jumper cables, if you cross lines you get an arc and a fried cable. The batteries do not explode. To get an explosion like that, gasoline would have to be involved. There’s actually very little gasoline in the engine, most of it is in the back in the gas tank. A stream is shot into the carburetor to cause combustion. The majority of the gas in not under the hood. Even the other liquids under the hood aren’t that flammable.

I didn’t catch the vintage of the car in the clip, but I don’t think anybody uses carburetors any more. Computer-controlled fuel injection is the norm.

[needscoffee]

I suspect it’s like MacGyver - they always left out important steps in a procedure that would cause damage and injuries if tried at home. They had Walter White do just enough for us to see that he’d be able to cause serious damage to the car, just not exactly in the way that it was depicted.