How can they unscrew the fuse from a WW2 bomb that was rotting under the ground or in water for 80 years, when you may have to use brutal force, heat, etc to remove bolts from a 10-year-old car (and the bolt will snap anyway)?

Question

I would expect that you wouldn’t be able to loosen anything on an old, rusty bomb, especially that it is so unstable and can go off anytime.

In: 1985

Answer 1

I think that the bolt on your 10 year old car was meant to keep parts of your car together so it is made robust and is tightened on to a specific torque. It is meant to take a lot of force and it is generally a bolt and a nut and both are exposed to the elements. There fore it will get rusty.

The fuse on a bomb is threaded in to insert the fuse and keep it in the bomb, but has no actual forces applied to it. It’s like the lid of some jar.. not meant to take road stress. Also it’s threaded into a sealed container (the bomb) and is not just a bolt and nut keeping to piece of your car together.

The wheel lug nuts can get pretty sticky, but they are holding your fricken wheel to the axle (or whatever you call it) so it has to be on pretty tight to start and it’s right out there for rain and road salt to splash on.