Jet Fuel VS Diesel VS Gasoline how they burn and what color are they.
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN cites it as a practical demonstration that kerosene-type fuels are hard to ignite compared with gasoline.
What it is
A hands-on comparison of how jet fuel, diesel, heating oil, kerosene, avgas and gasoline burn and what color they are. It shows that gasoline ignites more easily than jet fuel.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2018 to 2022.
What Hacker News said
Recommends sokoloff · 2022-03 · on “US schools can subscribe to an electric bus fleet at lower prices than diesel”
[this video] compares the flammability of several types of fuels. 2m08s for Jet-A. 3m50s for #2 diesel. 6m03s for heating oil. 7m30s for kerosene (all those are basically the same and surprising to most how not flammable they are in liquid form). 10m15s for avgas. 11m30s for auto gas.
Recommends MertsA · 2022-05 · on “Is It Safe to Ship Thousands of Electric Cars on Big Ships?”
It still doesn't burn well unless it's in a fine mist. Even just a puddle of diesel is actually quite difficult to get burning on its own without some other material as a wick of sorts. [this video] Great practical demonstration of the different flammability characteristics of some common fuels. For the tar that a container ship burns, it's not going to be very volatile. Coal also burns quite well, but unless it's powdered, good luck trying to ignite some with just a match.
Cites desdiv · 2018-08 · on “Norway's Plan for a Fleet of Electric Planes”
Other posters already mentioned the storage factor, so I'll mention the safety factor: Hydrogen is flammable, but kerosene is not; kerosene is instead combustible. Here's the technical difference between the two[0], but in practical terms it means that you can drop a lit match or cigarette into a tank of kerosene and nothing will happen. You can even heat a tank of kerosene directly with a propane torch without igniting it[1]. [0] [LINK] [1] [this video]
Cites MertsA · 2020-07 · on “Airbus eyes hydrogen power for airliner in next decade”
No he's right, Jet-A has plenty of energy but it's not very volatile so unless you've got a very large hot fire it will not sustain itself. [this video] It takes a spray nozzle atomizing it for him to actually meaningfully burn it with a blowtorch.
Cites sokoloff · 2021-05 · on “Caltech professor helps solve Hindenburg disaster”
Lindbergh was flying with a fuel much closer to gasoline than jet fuel. Jet fuel is on the kerosene/diesel end of the flammability spectrum (which is to say low and much lower than gasoline). You can put a match out in a jar of jet fuel at room temp. (Start at 1m30s: [this video] )