Originally Posted by
Retro Grouch
Oh oh! I'm sensing another word (like fume) that has a special meaning that only applies to certain people. The most recent word to bother me is bladder. I pee from my bladder. I drink from my hydration reservoir.
Words have multiple meanings. That's the way English...at least American English...works. When you drink from your hydration reservoir are you drinking from a large lake that is used to store water? Or is your bladder a a distensible membranous sac, an inflated fruit or vesicle in various plants, a fluid-filled cavity in metacestodes of some Trypanorhyncha, Tetraphyllidea and Cyclophyllidea, a bag that fills with air, a bag that fills with water, or losed-end, thick rubber, cylindrical shaped piece that contains the nitrogen gas in shock absorber.
Originally Posted by
Burton
Explosion was originally a description used to describe the detonation of explosives. Like lots of other words, many have been used and abused simply to add drama to sentences so now sprinters `explode out of the starting gates`. I hope they don`t hurt themselves too much in the process.
Check out the wikipedia for explosion and you won`t find anything not associated with explosives. Pressure vessles rupture or burst. They only explode when the contents are flamable and heat causes them to rupture and then explode when the contents ignite.
This may be largely symantics but since the OP posted a safety concern I think it was appropriate to point out the difference.
You need to read further. From the
Wikipedia explosion topic
Electrical and magnetic
A high current electrical fault can create an electrical explosion by forming a high energy electrical arc which rapidly vaporizes metal and insulation material. This arc flash hazard is a danger to persons working on energized switchgear. Also, excessive magnetic pressure within an ultra-strong electromagnet can cause a magnetic explosion.
Mechanical and vapour
Strictly a physical process, as opposed to chemical or nuclear, e.g., the bursting of a sealed or partially-sealed container under internal pressure is often referred to as a 'mechanical explosion'. Examples include an overheated boiler or a simple tin can of beans tossed into a fire.
Boiling liquid expanding vapour explosions are one type of mechanical explosion that can occur when a vessel containing a pressurized liquid is ruptured, causing a rapid increase in volume as the liquid evaporates. Note that the contents of the container may cause a subsequent chemical explosion, the effects of which can be dramatically more serious - such as a propane tank in the midst of a fire. In such a case, to the effects of the mechanical explosion when the tank fails are added the effects from the explosion resulting from the released (initially liquid and then almost instantaneously gaseous) propane in the presence of an ignition source. For this reason, emergency workers often differentiate between the two events.
Explosion was not originally used to describe the detonation of explosives. The etymology of the word is far from that. From the On
line Etymology dictionary
explode
1530s, "to reject with scorn," from L. explodere "drive out or off by clapping, hiss off, hoot off," originally theatrical, "to drive an actor off the stage by making noise," hence "drive out, reject" (a sense surviving in an exploded theory), from ex- "out" (see ex-) + plaudere "to clap the hands, applaud," of uncertain origin. Athenian audiences were highly demonstrative. clapping and shouting approval, stamping, hissing, and hooting for disapproval. The Romans seem to have done likewise.
At the close of the performance of a comedy in the Roman theatre one of the actors dismissed the audience, with a request for their approbation, the expression being usually plaudite, vos plaudite, or vos valete et plaudite. [William Smith, "A First Latin Reading Book," 1890]
English used it to mean "drive out with violence and sudden noise" (1650s), later, "go off with a loud noise" (Amer.Eng. 1790); sense of "to burst with destructive force" is first recorded 1882; of population, 1959. Related: Exploded; exploding.