A friend of my Dad’s used to work at a foundry where they made iron beams and such. He told this story about how one day a piece of red-hot iron was accidentally dropped on wet ground and it shot straight up very high and very quickly into the air. I didn’t want to dispute him but thought maybe his memory deceived him, since he was getting on in years. Is this possible? If so, the only explanation I can think of is the hot iron causes production of steam from the damp ground, which forces the iron into the air. Whatever may cause it, I just don’t believe it. Am I right or wrong?
The steam can lift the iron into the air. I have no idea how high. The hotter the metal the higher it would lift.
Add in iron can liberate hydrogen in contact with water.
I’m picturing a piece of hot iron shaped like a rod of rebar that enters the ground when dropped. Steam forms in the small cavity at the base, but can’t escape. The ground holds the iron somewhat tightly. Pressure builds until it launches out of the ground again.
Seems plausible but unlikely.
I’m not sure of the physics of it but covering water with molten metal will produce an explosion, especially if there isn’t a way for the steam to escape. I have always assumed that the water turns to steam then gets superheated and separates into hydrogen and oxygen, and something ignites. I do know that at our blast furnace the ladles (huge multi ton vessels used to transport the molten steel) are always turned upside down to insure there is no liquid in the bottom before they are filled. Several years ago (Holy cow have I really been here that long?) a bad roof and an extreme cold snap apparently produced several inches of ice in the ladle. After the molten steel was poured over it the resulting explosion blew the side off of the building. So yeah it can happen.
As if by coincidence… Mythbusters messed around with thermite and ice a couple of weeks ago. The results were pretty spectacular - thermite hits ice and BOOOM!
So maybe all those reported explosions on 9/11 came from the mall-level concessions? Interesting.
You don’t need to dissociate the water to get a nice big explosion; steam is plenty nasty all by itself.
High into the air – I don’t buy that.
a few inches maybe.
I once spent several hours during a mediation talking with boiler engineers. Apparently when you super heat water and it instantly turns to steam it expands with considerable force. It essentially explodes. Boiler explosions where the boiler is heated dry and then water is added are bad enough to take down buildings. They used to be more common in the early 1900’s when boiler safeguards had not been invented. I’d be willing to believe steam from super heated ground water kicked the steal beam into the air. But several feet seems more like good story telling rather than fact.
You get extra lift, I imagine, if the steel is flat or has some cavity to hold the steam, like a pot lid - no?
After seeing this, I’d believe it’s possible. The ingot pan they were pouring the molten aluminum into either had some sort of surface impurity or was too cold.
I’ve seen sparks from what I assume was welding falling from a couple stories up bounce pretty high when they hit the ground. Also check out these iron sparks rebounding off a wall.