Question: What causes pressure in an oil well?
Friso94
9th Dec 2017
Deepwater Horizon (2016)
5th Dec 2017
Apollo 13 (1995)
Question: What caused the oxygen tank to explode?
Answer: Other answer is not entirely correct. The O2 tank was dropped in the North American factory, but they were unable to find any damage so they installed it on the Apollo 13 SM. 2 years later the spacecraft was sitting on the pad at Kennedy and they did the "plugs out test" with the spacecraft fully fuelled and running on internal systems. After the test was completed engineers tried to drain the tank and found they couldn't, the drain tube had been damaged when it was dropped. In order to empty the tank, they decided to run the heaters all night to boil the LOX off. This introduced the second problem: The spacecraft was engineered to run on 65 volts but the tank heater and fan were engineered to run on 28 volts. NASA changed the spec and it didn't find it's way to the sub-sub-contractor. NASA->North American->Tank Fabricator->Sensor manufacturer. With the heater running all night at 3 times the voltage it effectively cooked the elements, burning off insulation and such. When they ran the electronics inside the tank, it exposed bare wire inside the LOX to electrical current. Two of those bare wires shorted causing the explosion.
Answer: The oxygen tank had been used previously on the Apollo 10 mission, but tests revealed a fault, so it was taken out. For Apollo 13, that tank was reused after refurbishment, but one important thing that had changed was the voltage and amperage running through it to keep the oxygen warm; it was doubled for the Apollo 13. That melted through the isolation material, causing a short, which caused the tank to explode.
24th Nov 2017
Inside Out (2015)
Question: When Sadness creates her sad core memory of Riley, why does it roll its way to the core memory chamber instead of appear on the shelf?
11th Nov 2017
Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
Question: *Spoiler alert* Towards the end, Loki goes into Odin's treasure vault to get to the Eternal Flame and summon Surtur, who then destroys Asgard. We don't see Loki being rescued from the treasure vault. Thor assumes he is dead because he seems to be saying goodbye on the ship that has everyone escaping Asgard. How did Loki escape while everything was on fire?
Answer: In the shot at the very end of the spacecraft the Asgardians are on (after we know Loki is OK) we see the ship they stole from the Grand Master docked to the top of it. Loki flew that ship to the vault, presumably landed as close as possible, placed the crown in the eternal fire, and in the brief time it took for the fire demon to grow, had time to escape the vault, get back in the ship, and fly to safety. I thought Thor was assuming Loki would choose to go his own way rather than rejoin the others, and was pleasantly surprised that he decided to come along too.
Answer: He may have used the Tesseract which has been in Odin's vault since the end of The Avengers, which we know can be used to teleport from one place to another.
2nd Nov 2017
Iron Man (2008)
Question: When Stark and the men protecting the soldiers are attacked by terrorists, the terrorists fire a weapon that fires a lot of rounds, that go through the a jacket, the soldier's body, and the car's door. Does such a weapon exist in real life? Is so, what is it called?
Answer: It's called an anti-personnel device (or anti-personnel explosive) that showers a target area with shrapnel distributed every 2 inches. It's intended to kill every person within its blast radius. The curious thing is that Tony Stark was untouched in the first anti-personnel attack, even though his bodyguards and the HumVee were perforated.
Answer: It could be a manual triggered claymore, small ones are able to penetrate light armor up to 50meters (55yards).
Answer: Later in the scene, Stark realises the terrorists are using Stark Industries weapons. In the Marvel Universe, as is evidenced by the various Iron Man armors/weapons, Stark Industries makes some pretty awesome weaponry.
Answer: It could be armor piercing ammunition, which would go through certain materials, but it's more likely that it was just done for dramatic effect with a few liberties taken on what real world weapons are capable of.
30th Oct 2017
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Question: How did Gollum know someone named Baggins from the Shire has the ring?
Answer: Because during the events of The Hobbit, Gollum met Bilbo, who introduced himself as Bilbo Baggins from the Shire.
7th Sep 2017
Titanic (1997)
Question: What does SQD Mean?
Answer: Its not SQD, it's CQD. This used to be the distress signal sent out by ships before SOS became commonplace, and it stems for the French pronunciation of CQ, the same as how they pronounce "sécurité". The D either means disaster or distress.
Answer: It was CQD. It stands for "come quickly, distress" or "come quickly danger!"
CQ does not mean "come quickly." CQ meant all telegraph stations to be on alert. Later they added D to stand for Distress. CQD means "all stations: distress."
5th Jun 2017
John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017)
22nd May 2017
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Question: How did Trebuchets work and how did the soldiers even move it for ammunition? They were pretty much firing something the size of a whole room.
Answer: Trebuchets are just elaborate catapults, but the additional rope at the end of the arm gives it extra leverage, and thus the ability to throw something extra far. As to maneuverability, that wasn't really a problem for the soldiers of Gondor, as they were fixed in place, solely to be used for defending the city when necessary.
4th May 2017
Red (2010)
Question: At the airport, Marvin shoots a bullet through a rocket, and the explosion travels backwards towards the shooter. Is this possible?
Answer: Yes and no. The Mythbusters later tested this, and it turns out that while an armed RPG will explode when shot with a bullet, it definitely won't kill whoever fired it. What's more, RPG's are designed to penetrate tank armor, and when they explode, a stream of molten metal comes out to destroy the armor. That kept going no matter what they did and would likely kill Marvin.
1st Jan 2017
Titanic (1997)
Question: What is the name of the song that is played when Lovejoy discovers that Jack and Rose are together in the bedroom, and they both escape through the elevator?
Answer: On YouTube you can find it like "the Chase" but it's a version quiet diferent than the film. Also is very good.
Answer: Rakish Paddy.
28th Apr 2017
Casino Royale (2006)
Question: This may be very obvious to others :- Why does Vesper have a password / account with the banker - when it was only the poker players for this stupendous game of high stakes who had individual passwords? I understand she was 'the money' but she wasn't a player therefore why did she have her own password to input with the banker and his silver case in Geneva? I really didn't understand that at all.
Chosen answer: Because Bond simply tells her the password as she's punching it in. As to the account, the proceeds would go to the British government, so it's only logical that Vesper would know the right account to put it in.
Question: Why did the Black Pearl's crew just give up when the curse was lifted? I get that it may have been a shock, but they had to know that getting convicted of piracy lead to hanging (so they'd die anyway). Not one of them realised this and tried to have a fighting chance?
Answer: There is one major gap in your question: not every pirate was hanged. Being a sailor in the 17th century was very dangerous, and there generally was a shortage of experienced sailors. What usually happened was that the captain was hanged to make an example, while the crew was forced to serve on trade ships, for example, the ones sailed by the WIC. The crew, even when giving up, had pretty good chances of survival.
2nd Nov 2016
Sons of Anarchy (2008)
Question: Does anyone know why Piney wears a jean vest instead of leather like the others?
Chosen answer: The First 9 wore these, as can be seen on old pictures. They later switched to leather, but Piney just never did.
14th Jun 2016
Pacific Rim (2013)
Question: Why didn't Stacker Pentecost yell at or punish Chuck for being a jerk to his adopted daughter Mako?
Answer: Mostly because he's trying to maintain a professional distance between him and Mako. That aside, it's not unlikely that he can trust Herc to take care of that, and it really were Raleigh and Mako that needed yelling at first.
14th Jun 2016
Pacific Rim (2013)
Question: How are Jaeger pilots grounded by Stacker Pentecost? They're not children and he is not their father.
Answer: Because he is their commanding officer and he makes a strategical call: he thinks Raleigh and Mako are unfit for combat. As for the whole 'grounding', that is a phrase that most likely stems from the Air Force. If a pilot is punished by not letting him fly, he is grounded.
22nd Mar 2016
X-Men: First Class (2011)
Question: Charles amply demonstrated that he could remotely control the mind of a Russian naval officer, causing him to act against orders. However, on the beach, when they are unable to contact the American and Soviet fleets by radio, why didn't Charles simply control the minds of the naval commanders and stop the naval attack?
Chosen answer: He was much closer to the Russian officer in comparison to when he was on the beach, and the Russian officer was just one man. Taking complete control of the hundreds of men on the ships required to fire all those guns would be beyond even Xavier.
28th Feb 2016
Tangled (2010)
8th Oct 2015
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)
Question: Will's primary motive for rescuing Jack is so that he can trade the Black Pearl for his father. But why would Davy Jones want the Black Pearl at all, he already has a very good ship? Why does Will think this is the best way to rescue his father?
Chosen answer: Will says he needs the Black Pearl to free his father, he's not planning on trading him. The Pearl is the fastest ship in the Caribbean, so chances are he's planning to take the Flying Dutchman by force, and free his father that way.
2nd Apr 2015
Fast Five (2011)
Question: I have searched every where to find the answer to 2 questions with no luck. First being at the end, where is the house that Brian and Mia are living at? The second is how does Dom know Neves? When Dom goes to her house to get the necklace back it implies that they know each other but she hasn't been in any other F and F films and in addition Dom says later in the film "running ain't freedom you should know that."
Answer: I agree that it's a new home they bought to settle down with Dom close by. As for Elena, it would not have been hard to track her down. They were running their own surveillance and I think he was referring to her own situation and having her honest policeman husband being gunned down. Like you said she's running in her own way with her own personal demons.
What surveillance were Dom and Brian running at the time? Dom says "I know you" to Elena in their very first scene together right after they found out what was on the chip in the favelas when Reyes men found them, and he saves her from Reyes' men that were shooting at them. They wouldn't have been running surveillance on the police at that time that would have involved them coming across Elena's information.
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Answer: That largely goes back to how oil is formed: from dead organic material. That sinks to the bottom of the sea, and if certain layers of sediment build up over that, it gets buried deep enough that's it's compressed, and after enough time passes, it becomes oil. But that pressure from the massive weight of miles and miles of rock on top of it never actually goes away, so when you poke a hole in it, that pressure suddenly has a way to go, via the oil spewing up through the well.
Friso94
So basically the pressure is created by massive weight of miles and miles of rock on top of the oil that creates the well pressure. Is that correct?
Yes.
Ssiscool ★
Geologic forces are one thing, but there are different types of petroleum wells, ranging from crude oil to natural gas to combinations thereof. The lattermost, a oil/gas well, is most dangerous because it can suddenly start spewing natural gas when crude oil was expected. Tapping into an oil/gas well can be like popping the top on a can of soda: Gases are released from the fluid and expand rapidly, creating immense and unexpected pressure. In the case of the can of soda, the thing unexpectedly spews soda all over you and your clothing. In the case of an oil/gas well, the thing unexpectedly undergoes a gas blow-out and, potentially, a catastrophic explosion when it reaches the surface.
Charles Austin Miller