Lava lamp left on hot stovetop explodes, killing man
KENT, Washington (AP) -- A man who placed a lava lamp on a hot stovetop was killed when it exploded and sent a shard of glass into his heart, police said.
Philip Quinn, 24, was found dead in his trailer home Sunday night by his parents.
"Why on earth he was heating a lava lamp on the stove, we don't know," Kent Police spokesman Paul Petersen said Monday.
After the lamp exploded, Quinn apparently stumbled into his bedroom, where he died Sunday afternoon, authorities said.
Police found no evidence of drug or alcohol use.
Source: This CNN Article
That's nothing...I've seen a toaster turned into a blowtorch. This is natural selection hard at work. I know, I know...how can I be so filled with apathy? Well, who the hell puts a lava lamp on a stove burner surface? PLUGGED IN NO LESS!!! Who? I ask you.
We all know basic physics. If you put a liquid over a burner it will eventually come to a boil. When you boil water some of it gets converted into a gas. And as we all know a gas under pressure WILL make its container explode or rupture at some point in time. There is almost no room for a gas to move to inside of the lava lamp so there is nothing you can do to prevent it, except remove the heat source. This stops the said liquid to gas state conversion reaction and saves your life.
If you all want a fun experiment that will demonstrate very much the same principle I?ve stated. I suggest buying a completely self-contained flashlight--the kind that are water proof to several hundred feet beneath surface of water, and leave it on for an hour or two. Eventually hydrogen gas will build up to a point that there is no way the flashlight casing can contain it. The front end of the flashlight will pop off and fly clear across the room at a very high velocity. I highly recommend that you do this outdoors and never, I mean NEVER go in front or behind the flashlight.
Thank you.
