Digital film, 'Fuel Drop Explosion' by Simon Tegala, 2006. The film shows a drop of petrol slowly forming against a black background, which then drips off and explodes in a flash of fire, light and sound.

The film runs on loop. It is an MP4 file at 1,361,558 MB with a running time of 50 seconds.

Simon Tegala produced this piece for the Science Museum Energy Gallery, installed 2006-2018. He was one of four artists commissioned at an important moment in the museum’s history. ‘Fuel Drop Explosion’ is a film piece, presented portrait that challenges visitors to think about the different transformations and uses of energy.

The fuel drop and the flame are very different: one is a slowly forming liquid, the other is a fast, bright and hot explosion, but there is energy in both of them and this film shows how beautiful and strange energy's transformations can be. The artist was fascinated by the ephemeral nature of fuel: 'Fuel Drop Explosion can be interpreted as an hourglass - one day our resources will run out.'