Just Think
2 HN recommenders · recommended in 5 months, 2018–2022
14:15 · 6.2M views · Nov 14, 2013
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.
HN cites it as a practical demonstration that kerosene-type fuels are hard to ignite compared with gasoline.
5 comments from Hacker News
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.
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.
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
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 )
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.