Ask Lemmy

Probably not because it's extremely useless for 99% of people lol

Does the average person know that a stalagmite is mostly calcium carbonate?

https://xkcd.com/2501/

No. Most people think you can throw a lit cigarette or lighter on it and it will go up instantly too because of movies. I think Die Hard 2 was the worst lol, he like threw a zippo in the puddle of her fuel and then it followed the plane in mid air to blow it up.

I don't think people know how octane level works either. I think they assume higher octane is easier to combust when it's the exact opposite.

I bet the average person knows it can't melt steel beams.

Does the average person know that it costs $2500 in fuel to get a boeing 747 off the ground?

The entire point of jet fuel is that it DOESN'T "blow up easily", though.

unlike gasoline, It actually takes quite a bit of effort to ignite avgas in it's liquid form because it's designed to be aerosolized before being ignited.

I don't know how easily it blows up, I'm too cool to turn around and watch the explosion

Its high flash point also makes it hard to ignite making it safer than gasoline.

Are we still doing 9/11

I did not know, I must confess. I know now. Knowledge is power.

Bro the average person doesn't even know you can compile software for different architectures.

They aren't gonna know about jet fuel which is almost as complex

I personally didnt and now it makes me question whether it can melt steel beams

The average person probably has no idea what cracking is to begin with.

Probably not. Same as movie directors don't seem to know what happens when you throw a lit cigarette in gasoline: it puts it out. Diesel doesn't ignite even with a match.

No. I wager the average person thinks its some kind of super dangerous super powered liquid explosion magic, because the average person is kind of an idiot.

I, however, did know its fancy kerosene

This one did, at least in general terms

It's taxed differently as well

Likely not. I thought it was highly volatile until I learned it was basically kerosene.

I knew, but only because I read a lot of cold war stories, and for war becomes hot stories. Running a jet on cooking kerosene was a plot point in one

I have since read about just engines and jet fuel

I don't work in that industry at all. I'm an IT systems analyst

I don't think they do. I'm a person that likes aviation and I never think about jet fuel.

No. I'd guess a lot of people, who don't work with it, think diesel blows up, even.

What the basic kinds of petroleum are, and which vehicles they go in, is one of those things any reasonably educated person should know, but the majority of the population actually won't.

I’ve known it since the 7th grade and I ain’t particularly bright.

I was in school training to be an aircraft mechanic when I learned that. I remember thinking, "that's crazy"