(Note: if the bottom of this post is cut off, look for Part Two...) I read another post on this site where EVERYONE stated that 80 proof liquor, whether its whiskey or vodka or gin or whatever is flammable. Well, really, its not. How do I know this...? Well, three reasons. One, 80 proof means 40% by volume. The alcohol is so diluted that the concentration becomes non-flammable, but if you don't believe me, research it yourself (A lot of the time, mixing many of the typical flammable liquids with water is like, well, the term "oil and water don't mix"; because of the different densities, they separate, with the lighter density liquid floating to the top. While alcohol is less dense than water, its close enough to mix completely, causing the dilution. When the two liquids don't mix, this is why some polluted lakes, "catch on fire" because the accelerant is less dense than the water and sits on top. One match and *poof* "Lake of Fire"...). Two, when I and my pyromaniac friends were teenagers living in a hick town in NC with NOTHING to do but play with matches (and ourselves), we ran out of lighter fluid one night, so we tried the whiskey we had which, as you guess it, would not light no matter what we did to it, and neither would the Vodka (The sad point being we wasted most of it...) And three, my stupid friend thought the same thing you guys did and tried to make a Molotov cocktail out of a nearly full bottle of whiskey, threw it and succeeded in doing nothing but waste a very nice bottle of hooch (By the way, just so you know, alcohol is non-explosive, while gasoline IS, {Alright, I'm 95% sure that Gas is explosive, so research it if you need to...}. Believe me, its important to know that...) Whenever you see people doing that trick at a party where they take a mouthful of alcohol, put a flame to their mouths and spit out fire, thats usually Bacardi 151 rum (Meaning 151 proof which is 75.5% alcohol) or Everclear which is, like, 90% alcohol. THATS flammable, let me tell you. I am not sure if 100 proof vodka, like Mr. Boston's is flammable, but it probably has a better chance of igniting. So, next time you see someone pouring 80 proof whiskey all over a bar or something in a movie and then he lights it on fire, thats a lie. And just so I don't have to do another post on this related subject, a cigarette is NOT hot enough to ignite gasoline in the open air. If it were a really windy, hot, dry, high pressure day where the wind increased the temperature of the cherry of the cigarette like blowing on the coals of a dying fire, then maybe, but, otherwise, no, it won't. I know this because I got tired of my father freaking out when I went to the open garage to smoke because there was a (usually empty) gas can with the cap on twenty feet away (But, like I said, if it had been a hot, dry, high pressure day with the garage door CLOSED and more than one gas can present and open, the concentrated fumes could very well ignite if you puffed on your cigarette a lot {Thereby increasing the temperature of the cherry}. In that instance, I would have had no problem having my delicious, soothing, God-kissed cigarette outside... Are there possible exceptions to this rule..? In all likelihood, yes, but they are remote...) So, to test this theory, I took a metal coffee can, filled the bottom with half a cup of gasoline and smoked three cigarettes over it, culminating with my throwing the lit butts in the can, where all they did was fizzle out like it was water. I thought I was alone in this curiosity, but, apparently, my friend, Dave, did the same thing when he was a teenager as well, for the same reasons and with the same results. The point is, none of them succeeded in igniting the gas. So, neither a cigar nor a cigarette is hot enough to ignite gasoline under regular circumstances (A cigar tends to burn a little hotter than a cigarette, but still usually doesn't burn hot enough to ignite gasoline out in the open). One last thing, A cigarette CAN start a regular fire under the right circumstances. I used to think they couldn't because of my former experiments, but like I said earlier, a hot, dry day and a strong wind can coax the cherry to a hotter temperature. I was sitting by a stream in Atlanta, Georgia smoking and because I thought nothing would happen, I just flicked my lit butts away. Well, one of then landed on a pile of super-dry leaves in direct sunlight, a long, stiff, high pressure wind hit that butt, causing the cherry to heat up igniting the leaves. I succeeded in putting out the fire in a panic, ruining my sneakers, but, well, ....uh.....oooops...! After that, no matter what I proved with my experiments, I always made sure my butts were completely out, my campfires were 100% buried under dirt and extinguished and I ceased my habitual licking of 9 volt batteries. You know: the big, flashlight ones (They made my tongue feel fuuunny... I only do it now to trim up my nasal hairs. It works great, but you end up smelling
