Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeart Radio. Hey, brain Stuff, Lauren Vogel bomb Here. For the purposes of this episode, we're going to work from the assumption that you don't want to cause an explosion or a fire at a gas station, sending the whole structure and all of its patrons up in a cloud of smoke, lottery tickets, and funyans. So, if you don't want to cause an explosion or start a fire at a gas station, should you keep your
trusty cell phone holstered? Not particularly. Although some gas stations have posted warnings against cell phone use and urban legends recount fires started by cell phones at gas tanks, there has been no documented case of a cellphone starting a fire at a gas station. In fact, researchers such as the MythBusters have actively tried and failed to use cell phones to start gas pump fires. But what started the
idea cellphones and gas pumps don't mix. One culprit could be the little shock of static electricity you get when you shuffle across the carpet and then touch something metallic or when you get out of your car. An electrical charge can build up in a material when it rubs against another material. While they both start with balanced amounts of negatively and positively charged electrons, one material can steal
negatively charged electrons from the other. When those negatively charged electrons don't have anywhere to go, they can build up in that one material. That's called a static charge because while it will hold in place for a time in attempting to get back to its normal balance, the material will discharge those spare electrons at the first chance it gets. That is, as soon as it comes near a conducive material like metal, The electricity will arc from your fingertips
to the metal, giving you a small shock. While cell phones have not been shown to ignite fires at gas stations, static electricity has. When you gas up your car, even if you don't spill a single drop gasoline, vapors still hang out around the pump nozzle, including when it's inserted in your gas tank. Those vapors can be ignited by
static electricity. Once they're ignited, the fire travels wherever the gas is inside the pump, inside the car's fuel tank, and the next thing you know, there's a big boom and you have a lot of explaining to do to your insurance company, and you're not safe from static electricity just because most gas stations are short on shag carpets.
If you start the fuel pump then get back into your car for some reason, and then get back out to return the nozzle to the pump, the motion of your clothes against each other and against the material of your car seat and interioror carpet might have charged you up enough to ignite those gasoline fumes. One study found charges of up to sixty volts on people who had
gotten in and out of their cars while refueling. So even though your cell phone itself is not going to set off a fire at the gas station, you definitely should not go back into your car to retrieve it while you fill up. And it's probably in your best interests to pay attention to the gasoline instead of your phone while you're pumping. After all, any situation with moving
vehicles and flowing combustion fuel deserves your full attention. Gas stations have lots of safety features, but it's always good to play at safe. Today's episode was written by Jamie Page Deaton and produced by Tyler clang Or. More on this and lots of other flowing topics. Visit how stuffworks dot com. Brain Stuff is production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.