Haven't you ever been cheering on a sports game with your measly little airhorn and wish it had just a little more oomf? Or been using your flamethrower to clear out hornet's nests and wanted the whole neighbourhood to know? Walking back from the outhouse and run into a groggy grizzly? No? No one else?
Well anyways, as everyone knows, a can of aerosol and a lighter make a fantastic improvised flamethrower, and that's basically what an airhorn is anyways. Put some butane in there and slap an old bbq lighter on there and you've basically got it! And hey maybe some pepper spray too, just in case I see that bear again.-- mace, May 02 2022 Rijke Tube https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rijke_tubeA tube with a flame up it works like a flute (sort of...).I've seen a musical instrument that uses a series of them. [neutrinos_shadow, May 03 2022] Another Rijke tube like Neut ws talking about https://www.youtube...watch?v=pncG3lJUOdY [doctorremulac3, May 03 2022] Is fire plasma web search results. https://www.google....AEB&sclient=gws-wizInteresting stuff. [doctorremulac3, May 04 2022] Whoa! This is amazing! [+]
Pepper spray is good too. Has anybody made a pepperspray that just sounds an alarm when you spray it? That might be cool.-- doctorremulac3, May 02 2022 Or a pepper spray that sounds exactly like the anguished screams of the recipient.-- whatrock, May 02 2022 And there was much rejoicing.... [+]-- 21 Quest, May 02 2022 + Yes and [a1]’s links just show how cool it is!-- xandram, May 02 2022 Sometimes an idea is so cool anybody who thought of it should get credit. I'd bun this twice if I could.-- doctorremulac3, May 02 2022 I would bun this idea if someone posted it repeatedly every day.
How to make it better? Built in igniter as suggested by [mace]. Also presumably a spun aluminium horn so the horn itself doesn't melt or catch fire. And should there be something like a gauze over the mouth of the horn, so that the flame front is better controlled for more spectacular flaming and clearer sound production?-- pocmloc, May 03 2022 I'm suddenly curious as to the behavior of a sound wave inside a flame.-- RayfordSteele, May 03 2022 The flame is matter pulsing in waves just like air but in a different state. Not state, mode, what's the word I'm looking for? It's on fire.
What's the difference between something that's on fire and something that's not? State would be solid liquid or gas, I guess fire is just a mode of a gaseous state?
This is where 8th of 7 would roll his eyes and basically say "Hey stupid, it's _______".
Anyway, it would behave the same as gas that wasn't on fire, you'd be able to see clear pulse waves. Then when the fuel is burned the force from the sound generating diaphragm would continue on, like pouring gas on the waves of a beach and lighting it in fire. It would follow the waves then burn out, but the force that caused the wave would still be evident in the remaining fluid.-- doctorremulac3, May 03 2022 This is wave theory?-- whatrock, May 03 2022 Yeah, but I just want to see what it would look like.-- RayfordSteele, May 03 2022 The flame itself can produce the sound. See linky.-- neutrinos_shadow, May 03 2022 //"Hey stupid, it's _______"//
"Plasma" is the word you're looking for. Yes, that word has a different meaning in medicine, but in physics, it's the next state of matter above gas. My understanding (and I am not a physicist) is that flames and lightning bolts are made of plasma.
[8th] would then offer to demonstrate the use of plasma such that any survivors near the target area might need plasma, if they got to hospital in time. He would shake his head at the notion of any survivors *in* the target area.-- pertinax, May 04 2022 Well done pert, I think 8th would say "We approve". Together I think we can put together a reasonable analog of our old buddy for purposes of annotations.
See link for the whole fire/plasma thing. Interesting stuff.-- doctorremulac3, May 04 2022 Hey, [doc3], it's - well, actually it isn't, because you're not proposing supersonic flow, but if you were, it would be easy to see the pressure waves molding the flame form, which then would be - Mach diamonds. (q.G.) In air, a flame is a pretty short duration phenomenon, unless you're continuously feeding it fuel; if your flambeau-boe is tuning the orchestra to an A-440, the wavelength will be about 80 centimeters- ish, and you're going to need to move the fuel pretty sprightly to get it over that distance before it goes out. I'm thinking that you either would have to have supersonic flow, or feed the fuel transverse to the wave fronts.-- lurch, May 04 2022 Yea, I was reading some of the posts in the search link that was getting into the details. Plasma it turns out is some pretty interesting stuff.
(pauses... wait... does plasma qualify as "stuff"?)-- doctorremulac3, May 04 2022 Flames are inefficient. They're what happens when the molecules have enough time to settle down and pair up. Real plasma keeps things too exciting for fire to happen.-- Voice, May 05 2022 //Flames are inefficient.//
Not if flames are the object of the exercise.
//Real plasma keeps things too exciting for fire to happen//
Something of a challenge to maintain plasma energies in the open air with a handheld device. But, if successful, I think you're into a juicy military contract.-- bs0u0155, May 05 2022 //I think 8th would say "We approve"//
Heh. Or he might have gone the other way. "Isn't this just a tiny flame thrower with added noise? Aren't the screams of the partially immolated the traditional soundscape associated with flame throwers?"
As for the idea [+], obviously. It should be possible to put together a prototype with an air-horn and a blow torch canister. Some safety gear recommended.-- bs0u0155, May 05 2022 //maintain plasma energies in the open air// Precisely what my recent ShockWave idea tries to do!-- neutrinos_shadow, May 05 2022 "...so they shall hear and fear."
Originally: "Lemmaan yiroo we yiraoo" (so they shall see and flee)-- pashute, May 09 2022 random, halfbakery