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How fast do you have to throw a burrito so it catches on fire?

tybrad

tybrad

Lunatic Member
Banned
So, how fast do you have to throw a burrito so it catches on fire?

Burrito2.jpg


Answer: We'll assume that a burrito has a similar flashpoint (i.e. the temperature at which it ignites) to wood, which would put it around 300 degrees Celsius (~570 Kelvin). There’s a lot of water in food, so we'll assume similar heat capacities (~4 J/g K). As such, a 0.5 kg burrito would need to gain 500 kJ of heat energy to ignite. The energy lost due to friction for a burrito will be about the same magnitude as that for a baseball; and assuming all the energy lost to friction goes into heating the burrito. (Numerical Assumptions: Drag coefficient ~ 0.3, Area ~ 9 square inches, air density 1.2 kg/m2, burrito catchs on fire in 1 second.) This will be about (0.0003 kg s/m) x (velocity)3.

This gives about 1000 m/s.

Good to know!
Tues morning fun fact.

Best,
Tyler
 
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Different coefficient of drag at sea level than at high altitude, say in Denver, Colorado. Come on man, get it right, this is important work!
 
I submit for proposal a new de-facto unit of distance; the Burrito-Year.
The sun is therefore 5 Burrito-Years distant.
 
All I know is that when I get to the moon, and discover that the idiot who packed my lunch put one of those stinky burritos in it, and I throw it away as hard as I can, giving it escape velocity from the moon's gravity, and the Earth's gravity picks it up and starts pulling it in... it burns up, VERY, VERY QUICKLY as it enters the Earth's atmosphere... Takes a while to get to that point, but once it does, POOF! - it's gone in a flash!

Back here on Earth, it'll also incinerate about as quickly, if you throw it close to an open lava flow from a volcano.

Half a million volts does a pretty quick-flash job of it, too. I think less would work, too, but that's the easiest voltage to test in my basement. Of course, a lot depends on the amperage.

Dragon's breath is at least equally fast, but exceedingly difficult to find in this day and age.

An incompetent cook is much slower, but eventually gets the job done, and incompetent cooks are almost ubiquitous.

Yep, there are lots of ways to burn a burrito! :yes:
 
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With some of the Burritos around here.................................

......the fire comes out my rear???


Steve
 
Why on earth would you assume wood will catch fire at 300 degrees? Book paper ignites at Fahrenheit 451 everyone knows that. And paper ignites faster then actual wood.

I believe your math is very flawed. You also do not take into consideration the ignition points of the various materials in the Burrito. The flour tortilla would light at a lower temp then the beans or meat and much lower then any high moisture content ingredient. And not knowing the exact moisture content you can't predict the lenght of time it will take to first turn the water to vapor and then have it disapate. Then allowing the cooling effect to stop and the actual heating to start.
 
Mark W. said:
Why on earth would you assume wood will catch fire at 300 degrees? Book paper ignites at Fahrenheit 451 everyone knows that. And paper ignites faster then actual wood.

I believe your math is very flawed. You also do not take into consideration the ignition points of the various materials in the Burrito. The flour tortilla would light at a lower temp then the beans or meat and much lower then any high moisture content ingredient. And not knowing the exact moisture content you can't predict the lenght of time it will take to first turn the water to vapor and then have it disapate. Then allowing the cooling effect to stop and the actual heating to start.
Click to expand...

Really?

It's called orders of magnitude estimation and modeling, and this is to be a light-hearted thread. The wood mentioned is not dry kindling, if that explanation is necessary.
 
What about the Flying Burrito Brothers? One of them was going a whole lot slower when he burned up.
 
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