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NP Wednesday March 15, 2017

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Sugar burns, but burning solid sugar in air leaves a LOT of solid carbon residue, making it unsuitable for internal combustion type engines--you would need external combustion (e.g. steam), or some kind of catalytic fuel cell that breaks it down in a non-combustion manner.

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8 minutes ago, ijuin said:

Sugar burns, but burning solid sugar in air leaves a LOT of solid carbon residue, making it unsuitable for internal combustion type engines--you would need external combustion (e.g. steam), or some kind of catalytic fuel cell that breaks it down in a non-combustion manner.

I think that you might get acceptable results with high levels of oxygen. Considering sugar can explode ... but only when NOT wet.

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Sugar explodes, but that says nothing about the residue that it leaves behind. In an internal combustion engine it will gum up the pistons or turbine, which is why they used to put sugar in gasoline tanks to sabotage automotive or aircraft engines.

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1 hour ago, ijuin said:

Sugar explodes, but that says nothing about the residue that it leaves behind. In an internal combustion engine it will gum up the pistons or turbine, which is why they used to put sugar in gasoline tanks to sabotage automotive or aircraft engines.

Hmmmm ... true, I vaguely remember something like that (maybe Biggles did it?).

Still, just because piston internal combustion engine is bad for burning it doesn't mean you need external combustion. It may work fine in jet engine, for example. (Not sure how can you power robots with jet engines, though.)

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11 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Not sure how can you power robots with jet engines, though.

I'm sure that Grant Imahara would find a way.

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3 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Hmmmm ... true, I vaguely remember something like that (maybe Biggles did it?).

It was one of these things that happened in occupied Denmark during WW2, giving German vehicles a little sugar rush. They even encouraged children to do it. I would be astounded if this did not also happen in other occupied countries.

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8 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

It was one of these things that happened in occupied Denmark during WW2, giving German vehicles a little sugar rush. They even encouraged children to do it. I would be astounded if this did not also happen in other occupied countries.

And this is one of the many reasons to have locking gas caps on your vehicles.

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17 hours ago, The Old Hack said:
20 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Hmmmm ... true, I vaguely remember something like that (maybe Biggles did it?).

It was one of these things that happened in occupied Denmark during WW2, giving German vehicles a little sugar rush. They even encouraged children to do it. I would be astounded if this did not also happen in other occupied countries.

Not sure about you, but I do NOT remember WW2. If I actually remember it related to war (and it's not false memory created by association with the word "sabotage"), it's probably from some book about war ... and I did read multiple books about Biggles.

8 hours ago, Drasvin said:

And this is one of the many reasons to have locking gas caps on your vehicles

Not sure if locking gas caps weren't developed only AFTER the war and exactly for this reason.

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3 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Not sure about you, but I do NOT remember WW2. If I actually remember it related to war (and it's not false memory created by association with the word "sabotage"), it's probably from some book about war ... and I did read multiple books about Biggles.

Not sure if locking gas caps weren't developed only AFTER the war and exactly for this reason.

There might have been another good reason. Gasoline shortages, and they certainly had these during WW2. If you have no gas for your own car it becomes REALLY tempting to, shall we say, 'borrow' some from a car that does have some. I suspect that it would very swiftly grow really old to leave your car with a nearly full tank and then upon returning to it find that more than half its gas was mysteriously gone...

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12 minutes ago, The Old Hack said:
4 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Not sure about you, but I do NOT remember WW2. If I actually remember it related to war (and it's not false memory created by association with the word "sabotage"), it's probably from some book about war ... and I did read multiple books about Biggles.

Not sure if locking gas caps weren't developed only AFTER the war and exactly for this reason.

There might have been another good reason. Gasoline shortages, and they certainly had these during WW2. If you have no gas for your own car it becomes REALLY tempting to, shall we say, 'borrow' some from a car that does have some. I suspect that it would very swiftly grow really old to leave your car with a nearly full tank and then upon returning to it find that more than half its gas was mysteriously gone...

What so mysterious about it? You only need like half meter long tube, petrol can and not throw up too much from taste of gasoline. Capillary action is pretty well recognizable from magic.

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Just now, hkmaly said:

What so mysterious about it? You only need like half meter long tube, petrol can and not throw up too much from taste of gasoline. Capillary action is pretty well recognizable from magic.

Ah, my mistake. The 'mysteriously' bit was supposed to be humorous; perhaps I should have put it in quotation marks.

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8 minutes ago, The Old Hack said:
10 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

What so mysterious about it? You only need like half meter long tube, petrol can and not throw up too much from taste of gasoline. Capillary action is pretty well recognizable from magic.

Ah, my mistake. The 'mysteriously' bit was supposed to be humorous; perhaps I should have put it in quotation marks.

No, my mistake, I though it would be funny to pretend I didn't get it. I guess I overdid it.

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8 minutes ago, hkmaly said:
18 minutes ago, The Old Hack said:
20 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

What so mysterious about it? You only need like half meter long tube, petrol can and not throw up too much from taste of gasoline. Capillary action is pretty well recognizable from magic.

Ah, my mistake. The 'mysteriously' bit was supposed to be humorous; perhaps I should have put it in quotation marks.

No, my mistake, I though it would be funny to pretend I didn't get it. I guess I overdid it.

To take from the commentary of a recent story comic, this conflict could have been averted with the proper use of ";)"

 

;)

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44 minutes ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Locking gas caps became popular in the US during the oil embargo of the 1970s.

I had a locking cap on the 1970 Ford Maverick that I was forced to drive in high school. It was my step-mother's car, and like her, it was a piece of junk.

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