A COMMON MISTAKE IN HOLLYWOOD MOVIES

For the ones being in the industries which are dealing with fire extinguishing systems, everytime they watch a movie where sprinkler system for the entire building is triggered with a push of the button, they probably develop a pet peeve.

For the ones out of the industry and who haven't had the chance to get to know how sprinkler system works; the sprinkler system mainly consist of sprinkler heads reaching every enclosed part with specific range of distance between them, branches of pipes transfering pressurized water to the sprinkler heads and a pumping system which pressurizes the water.

The system is completely mechanic. Whenever a fire takes place, the increased heat expands the liquid inside the glass on the nearest sprinkler head, this expansion cracks the glass and causing the pressurized water to be sprayed around the area of fire. So only the sprinkler heads in the area of fire gets activated and there has to be heat for the glass to be shattered rather than that it can be shattered physically by an accidental hit.

However, Hollywood loves to use this classical scene in the movies. This is a very useful tool where in the plot mostly the main character tries to escape from a building or run away from the villians.

As an engineer it peeves me everytime i see this in a movie and i lose my attention and admiration for that movie. Imagine you watch a movie like "The Dark Knight" which takes you inside from the first second and then you see a mistake like this.. Not good :)