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Ok, What Was It?

Maybe all three batteries were replaced at the same time, and they were all from the same manufacturer's bad batch.
 
Jodie said:
This is really minor, it was 6 + months ago. I was coming out of my house and my neighbor was getting gravel bags out of her trunk for her landscaping. She drives a Toyota Corolla and left the trunk lid up while she was making trips back and forth to the car. We got into a conversation and while we were talking we both saw her trunk lid move up and down three times. There was no wind.
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The rear lift glass on my Ford Explorer does this. One of the gas lift shocks is worn out while the other is still good. It will allow the glass to sag down, then the other good shock will lift it up again.

ETA: Ninja'd. :D (I really need to read the thread before replying.)

devnull said:
Especially with worn gaslifts.
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Jodie said:
I am sure there is an explanation for this one, but not being a mechanic, I can't figure it out and I couldn't reproduce it at the time.

We had three cars in my family growing up, we all got up to go to school or work respectively one morning and all three car batteries had exploded over night. The sides of the batteries were so blown out that it made it very difficult to get them out to put in replacements. My first guess would have been a lightening strike but there was no storm that night. What could cause that?
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battery fairies came by expecting a sacrifice, you didn't leave one so they destroyed the batteries.
 
Or it could have been vandalism, how do you make a battery explode without cranking the car up?
 
Jodie said:
Or it could have been vandalism, how do you make a battery explode without cranking the car up?
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An M-80? :)

It would be hard. I was a mechanic for a long time and I only ever saw one battery explode. It had been on a charger all night and when the tech (not me) went to install it, he shorted his wrench between the positive terminal and the bracket that holds the battery down. I assume there was an abundance of explosive gas (hydrogen) and the spark ignited it. I was in the back of the shop and heard it go. Sounded like someone fired a .45 in there. Acid and shards of plastic everywhere and one mechanic that suddenly developed an intense love for his safety glasses.

Without over-charging the battery, I don't know how an evil-doer would be able to blow up a battery without some sort of explosive.
 
Jodie said:
Or it could have been vandalism, how do you make a battery explode without cranking the car up?
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the most common way to explode a battery is with jumper cables, when a spark can ignite the hydrogen gas generated by charging. It's why you should always make your last jumper connection a negative one to either the vehicle frame or engine block rather than a battery terminal.

I believe it is possible to explode a battery with a very severe dead short, such as a big wrench across the terminals. I would suspect something like this if three were mysteriously done in one night.
 
bruto said:
the most common way to explode a battery is with jumper cables, when a spark can ignite the hydrogen gas generated by charging. It's why you should always make your last jumper connection a negative one to either the vehicle frame or engine block rather than a battery terminal.

I believe it is possible to explode a battery with a very severe dead short, such as a big wrench across the terminals. I would suspect something like this if three were mysteriously done in one night.
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I'm not supporting the idea that a poltergeist ruined the batteries in Jodie's cars (even a little), but I bet you couldn't do this with three batteries and have it work every time.
 
Howie Felterbush said:
I'm not supporting the idea that a poltergeist ruined the batteries in Jodie's cars (even a little), but I bet you couldn't do this with three batteries and have it work every time.
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Well, to be honest, I've never done it even once, and in fact I've never blown up a battery in any way, though I have had a couple of extremely dead ones crack in winter, but since it is reported to have been done, I figure it's a better explanation than some. A sample of three is not so large as to exclude some luck.
 
Jodie said:
Or it could have been vandalism, how do you make a battery explode without cranking the car up?
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Park it in a cold enough atmosphere for a long enough period of time for it to freeze and crack the casing...
 
Howie Felterbush said:
I'm not supporting the idea that a poltergeist ruined the batteries in Jodie's cars (even a little), but I bet you couldn't do this with three batteries and have it work every time.
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Probably not, but of course it doesn't have to work every time. It only has to work once.

Edit: Actually, it doesn't even have to work once. All it takes is for something to work once. It hardly even matters what that something is.
 
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Jodie said:
It was probably nanobots after battery acid.
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More than likely you're misremembering things.

You don't seem to understand how fallible and malleable human memory is.

Things may have actually happened very differently from how you now remember them. This is completetly human and natural.
 
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Which is more likely, that one person should encounter an unlikely number of very unusual or unlikely events over a lifetime, or that they remember slightly unusual events and in the subsequent years of recall and retelling, they become unwittingly distorted and exaggerated to enhance their interest and mystery value as stories?

It seems to me that the recall and telling of these stories is what keeps them alive (i.e. not forgotten), and the point of telling story is that it should be interesting. We know it is the reconstruction of recall and telling that causes distortions and exaggerations to creep in. So it is to be expected that stories will become more 'interesting' over time.

The question that interests me is why some people seem to have so many more such stories to tell than the rest of us.
 
My memory of the car battery incident might be distorted since it was 35 years ago. I don't recall anyone ever figuring out what happened. That doesn't mean someone didn't because at the time I had my mind on my social life. I didn't give it much thought after the initial incident until I was older and realized it was unusual. Anyway, vandalism, battery defect, or some such explanation is probably to blame.
 
How cold was it that night?

http://mathscinotes.wordpress.com/2013/02/26/battery-freezing-math/
Lead-acid batteries contain a solution of sulfuric acid (H2SO4) and water — the solution is referred to as the battery’s electrolyte. Adding a solute (in this case, H2SO4) to a solvent (in this case, H2O) will lower the freezing point of a solution. A fully charged battery has more H2SO4 than a discharged battery. The additional H2SO4 depresses the freezing point of the batteries electrolyte to around -70 °C. This is a temperature we do not see in Minnesota. However, a discharged battery’s freezing point rises to ~-10 °C. Unfortunately, the temperature in Minnesota frequently drops below -10 °C.
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I wonder if we could have your definition of "explode" for purposes of this discussion. Could it be, Jodi, that you heard someone say, "batteries are blown, shot...dead....done for...etc"? Did you personally witness the condition of all three batteries? Was there acid strewn about? How old were you when this happened? Any chance you misunderstood the situation? Is there any more detail that you can offer? Lacking this, I am tempted to agree that this might be a false memory from childhood.

Originally Posted by Tiktaalik
Maybe all three batteries were replaced at the same time, and they were all from the same manufacturer's bad batch.
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I hadn't thought of that but it sounds reasonable.
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But in fact, it is very far fetched. Would not part of this story be a mechanic asking where your father/mother bought the batteries which were so curiously defective? Who replaces batteries in three vehicles on the same day? My first thought would have been to call the vendor if these were relatively new. Too many "coincidences" here to be feasible.

Please note that none of these questions is meant to imply any insult. We are all subject to false memories, particularly as kids. I am honestly very curious about what could have possibly happened.
 
Jodie said:
My memory of the car battery incident might be distorted since it was 35 years ago.... Anyway, vandalism, battery defect, or some such explanation is probably to blame.
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IMO, false memory is more likely to be the explanation than simultaneous and odd vandalism to three different car batteries or simultaneous battery defects on three different car batteries.

For example: One of the car batteries may have exploded. Then the other two were inspected and found to have distorted cases which were bulging. It was announced that the other two looked like they were about to explode as well. Thirty-five years later the story is that all three batteries exploded.

This is well within the realm of false and changing memory and is fairly common with normal people.

ETA: And what Olowkow just said.
 
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