i heard you can boil gasoline in a pot but it wont ignite it sounds crazy to me but its an old myth i like to see this on the the show.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Rogman111,

If the heat source is exposed and at a higher temperature than the flash point of the gasolene, and there is a source of air available, yes, it will ingnite,and do so very energetically.

funnily enough I happened to be thinking of this just the other day!

I remember having an argument years ago with someone who said 'you can't start a fire, without a spark' and I disagreed, citing a diesel engine as a example, no 'spark' but yet ignition nonetheless...

fire is a holy trinity of at least three things, heat, fuel, oxygen, (and now a fourth aspect, chemical reaction [think sodium metal dropped into water, this will give off hydrogen gas, and that will burn because the heat given off is sufficient to ignite it )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_triangle

as long as you have all these 'ingredients' and as long as the heat is sufficient then you will get that high speed chemical oxidation of the fuel, known as FIRE...

the heat required by petrol to burn without a flame or spark is 246°C, this is the Autoignition Temperature, NOT the same as the flash point (my quick research indicates this to be colder than minus 40°C! so you could light the vapours well below the freeing point of water..)

So, as long as the vapour temperature got higher than 246°C then yes it would, otherwise no, it would not ignite...

And this is why oil refineries blowing up is a rare event, and thus newsworthy.

I didn't make it fully clear above, the Autoignition Temperature of 246°C can be exceeded, and is in fact well exceeded in a refinery, however as there is very little oxygen (one of the trinity of fire) present in the process then it will not ignite...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_refinery

with reference to the picture of the fractionating column in the second picture down (left side)