What causes a battery to EXPLODE!

So I got into my car after driving to my friends house tried to start the car and BOOOOMM. A spark came off the hood and a bunch of smoke. I was like WTF

tried to start it again, very little power

Waited a few seconds... opened the hood and all the caps were missing from the top of the battery. The top was all cracked and barely together. battery acid all over their driveway :s

Got my dad to bring me a battery we had from the 1992 jetta we bought for parts a couple years back.. Pulled the battery and turns out the one side is all cracked and broken open too. I'll have to take pics tomorrow hahaha

**EDIT**
http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/9/web/2061000-2061999/2061750_51_full.jpg
http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/9/web/2061000-2061999/2061750_52_full.jpg
http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/9/web/2061000-2061999/2061750_53_full.jpg
http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/9/web/2061000-2061999/2061750_54_full.jpg

Hydrogen buildup causes boom.

short circuit.. good luck with rusting tho, battery acid is very corrosive, so you better neutralize that shit ASAP.

Check your alternator to be sure it isn't overcharging the battery.

My dad thinks the battery was to dry, probably for a long time

a dead battery can go into an internal short circuit, just fyi.

I took a look a little while ago since it's daylight now... And the force blew the large plastic plug beside the battery tray out so thats why the battery acid drained onto the driveway instead of the shit sitting in that area.

better still neutralize the area, or it will rust fast. Anyhow looks like a short circuit, seen it before, that shit is nasty, imagine you or your dad was standing next to it. You'd look like two face from batman now.

well it didn't explode when I was working on the car or anything like that. And since I work on the car alone it would have just gone anywehre. I am just happy I had the batter tie down in place. Otherwise it might have dented the hood

4th of July in your engine NICE

My dad thinks the battery was to dry, probably for a long time


I agree

had to charge the battery I have in it now... you have no idea how scared I was carrying it AHAHAHAH like the force of the one in the car shook it and blew plastic bits everywhere

no idea how it could have been dry since I checked it before the winter and it had lots. and the ammount of fluid on the driveway and still in the batter and in the car should have been plenty for that battery.

a dead battery can go into an internal short circuit, just fyi.

Thats probably how... Internal short causes a spark, Hydrogen buildup goes boom and the end result is what you see now.

For those who were reading the thread on the strange idea on converting water to H2 and then combusting it in a standard engine, here is another example of how explosive hydrogen really is...

I'm thinking that dirty positive terminal sparked from a poor connection, thus igniting the fumes from the weak cell.

as you can see in the pic the positive terminal was clean, I had cleaned them about 3 months ago.

For those who were reading the thread on the strange idea on converting water to H2 and then combusting it in a standard engine, here is another example of how explosive hydrogen really is..
The hindenburg was filled with hydrogen, worst catastrophe in the zeppelin era.

then you wonder why they had such an issue with the hydrogen fuel cells being unstable. I'm scared to see what would happen to one of those buses they have around the states that are hudrogen powered if it got in a horrible accident

then you wonder why they had such an issue with the hydrogen fuel cells being unstable.'
Well it is volatile, thats the thing, kinda like gasoline, doesnt take much of a spark to light a gasoline leak into a fireball. The containers for the hydrogen are quite thick, so they'd rather bend and dent than bust or crack, also they're placed in such a way in the vehicle that its not it a great risk of being damaged in an accident.. Besides hydrogen and LPG powered busses have been around for a long time now and I for once havent heard of a fueling related accident.

Problem with the hindenburg was the mass of the hydrogen, plus the fact that the outer skin was cloth, and the chemical to preserve it was made of such materials, that a static spark would ignite it and well, you know what happens next.

Also with the buses... they are huge it's a friggin bus, there is no way to prevent hydrogen from exploding in something like a civic in some of the accidents I have seen where there is just about nothing left of the car. You would kill the people in the car, the person hitting them and people standing withing a certain radius because of flying shrattnel

Sure there is, for example the gastank in a car is in a relatively safe place, in a crash, its not usually the gastank that breaks and leaks, its the fuel lines up front/under the car. Plus busses are bigger, so they need a bigger tank for hydrogen than a civic. Your imaginenation is playing tricks on you,

I understand that. But what I am saying is try preventing something like this from exploding with hydrogen in it. IT;s alot less stable than gasoline...
http://www.hbpd.org/images/traffic_901dui.jpg


or how about some pics of when a drunk driver hit a civic and riped the rear end off, which would either take the take with it or rip it in half.

like how you missunderstood me when I said "just about nothing left of the car" I haven't a clue...

Wow where did the top half of that tree go...

I'm sure they would have thought of that in a fuel cell car. The Tanks in an LPG Car can withstand a semi hitting it at 110km/h (apparently). LPG Is alot more volatile than gas too.