Gasoline moving in a magnetic field

Quixote

Critical Thinker
Q
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Oct 26, 2002
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On Cartalk this morning, a caller asked whether the magnets he is using to hold his gas cap door shut could cause gas fumes to ignite while he's pumping gas. Tom and Ray assured him that they would not, because permanent magnets have no electricity associated with them. Which raises two questions. Is there a permanent magnet strong enough to induce an electric current in gasoline moving through its magnetic field? Could that current cause gas fumes to ignite?
 
Quixote said:
On Cartalk this morning, a caller asked whether the magnets he is using to hold his gas cap door shut could cause gas fumes to ignite while he's pumping gas. Tom and Ray assured him that they would not, because permanent magnets have no electricity associated with them. Which raises two questions. Is there a permanent magnet strong enough to induce an electric current in gasoline moving through its magnetic field? Could that current cause gas fumes to ignite?
Click to expand...

First, I'm not sure if magnets can induce currents in liquids. I thought they can only induce currents in metals, but I could be wrong. Secondly, even if the magnets could induce currents in liquids, they would likely be very small, and not enough to heat the gasoline to the point of ignition. In order to heat it up, you need power. And to have power, you would need to have a fairly large amount of current flowing through the liquid, since the resistance of the liquid is probably small.
There are probably other reasons as well why the gas won't ignite if it moved through a magnetic field.

Hope this answers your question...

and I hope I gave the right answer...
 
Fueling fires are indeed started by static electricity. Planes use a ground strap, car tires are anti-static and ground the car while the nozzle should be in intimate contact with the filler neck. Everthing is grounded, so no sparks jump, whether the gas picks up a charge from passing a magnet or just flowing through the hose.

Have you seen the security camera film of the gal setting her car on fire? She gets out, puts nozzle in, starts fueling. Decides to make a cell phone call while waiting. She slides across the car seat to get the phone, slides out too, all while wearing a fuzzy sweater. She reaches to adjust the nozzle, spark jumps, igniting the fumes displaced from the tank by the incoming liquid gas.

More car fires would be prevented if we require women to be topless for the duration of fueling, but I can't get Senators Feinstein amd Boxer behind the law.
 
Re: Re: Gasoline moving in a magnetic field

clk said:
First, I'm not sure if magnets can induce currents in liquids. I thought they can only induce currents in metals, but I could be wrong.
Click to expand...

Well, there are such things as liquid metals, and there are non-metal liquids which also conduct electricity (for example, the acid solution in your car battery). Magnets can induce currents in anything that can conduct electricity. But gas is a pretty poor conductor of electricity, so you're not going to get any significant eddy currents.

But it doesn't really matter anyways: what you need isn't just current, but a spark to actually ignite the flame, and you can only get a spark from high voltages. Try this at home: take a refrigerator magnet, wave it around your metal utensils, and try to get a spark. You won't be able to, because even though you're generating (very small) currents in the metal, the voltage is never getting anywhere NEAR high enough to cause sparking. There's a reason that the wires in electric generators are wrapped a large number of times, and it's because, even with large magnets and high speeds, the voltage generated in a single loop is generally still pretty small. Without looped wire, you don't get that voltage multiplying effect. So you could be pumping mercury (a liquid metal) into your gas tank and it wouldn't matter: the magnets aren't going to make it spark.
 
A magnet will induce a current in any conductor that is moving rleative to the magnet (whether the magnet, the conductor, or both are moving). This includes liquid conductors. So, magnets can induce currents in liquids. However, note the word conductor. Gasoline is not a conductor, so no kind of magnet can induce currents in it.

Hans
 
Quite right, Hans. Since the petroleum molecules are non-polar, they are non-conductive and can not be influenced by magnetic fields. You can cause the hydrogen atoms to align their spins by a combination of strong magnetic fierlds and radio waves of the proper frequency (the basis of MRI), but that is not what is being discussed...
 
You forget that various superadditives will magnetise your gasoline, by realigning the degaussification potentialisers on the molecular spin axis. These will also age wine , youth water, verbalise nouns and detoxify DHMO.
(For further details, write Soapy Productz Inc., Dreamon, Lalaland).
 
Soapy Sam said:
You forget that various superadditives will magnetise your gasoline, by realigning the degaussification potentialisers on the molecular spin axis. These will also age wine , youth water, verbalise nouns and detoxify DHMO.
(For further details, write Soapy Productz Inc., Dreamon, Lalaland).
Click to expand...

No wonder the cow stomache magnets I zip tied to my gas line didn't improve my milage any. Sorta makes me wonder it they would work better on my Diesel truck? Since the fungus in the diesel has some small amount of polar phospho-lipids, which could be magnetic....and maybe Lard as a bio-diesel could really take off if I magnetise my injectors??? Ah yes, I see a study now "Does Cholesterol Levels of Fuel Facilitate Magnetic Improvements in Gas Milage?", or the "DCLFFMIGM Study, (pronounced "D-cliff-my-gum" study). I wonder if the Energy department would fund me?
 
Soapy Sam said:
You forget that various superadditives will magnetise your gasoline, by realigning the degaussification potentialisers on the molecular spin axis. These will also age wine , youth water, verbalise nouns and detoxify DHMO.
(For further details, write Soapy Productz Inc., Dreamon, Lalaland).
Click to expand...
AND restore virgins, don't forget that.


Hans
 
Bad thing to forget, since that is where the testing gets fun :p (whether it works or not).

Hans
 
I'm wondering if I have the guts to ask Casebro to explain about "Cow stomach magnets"...
 
Soapy Sam said:
I'm wondering if I have the guts to ask Casebro to explain about "Cow stomach magnets"...
Click to expand...

As teenager I worked for Petco when it was a chain of 1 store. Sold ranch and farm supplies too, not just pet stuff. 1972.

Cows eat hay. Bales of hay have lots of iron bits in them- nails, fence staples, bale wire, bits of barbed wire, tractor parts. So farmers stuff a magnet down the cows throat- about 3 inch long, 1/2 inch diameter, it sits in the cows first stomach and collects those magnetic bits, preventing damage further down the digestive tract.

Several years later (1983)I worked as an auto mechanic in a tune up shop. We noticed that some cars had those magnets zip tied to their fuel lines. Magnets were N-to-N, S-to-S and repelled each other. PITA to put them back on. It was farmer's woo that they prevented vapor lock or vaporised fuel or magnetised it so it would stick to the spark plugs er sumthin.

Where would we be without magnets? Go for what ails your car, your cow, or your Corpus Cavernosa.....
 
Ah.

Thanks for that.

I think.

http://www.neodymium-magnets-uk.com/

I love magnets. Always did as a kid. I've been looking longingly at the above site for some time. I like their honest attitude to magnetic therapy- "We don't think it works, but if you want to try, at least buy good magnets." Can't fault that.
 
Old busted hard drives are a good source for neodymium magnets, if you're looking for some to play around with.
 
I have one on my fridge door. Can't get the damn thing off!

Also the discs make excellent shaving mirrors!
My recycling mantra; Think globally- act like a big kid!
 
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