“Money Heist” Feasibility Test

Devon Katragadda

Robbing the Bank Of Spain

• They burn a hole into the vault
• As soon as they start burning the vault begins to fill with water
• They insert a antelock
• They weld the antelick in place
• They have to do all of this before the water reaches where they are welding
• Is it possible to do the above before the water reaches the hole?

The Dimensions of The Vault

• The dimensions of the vault I found to be 6x8x2.5 fluorescent light bulbs
• Fluorescent light bulbs have a pretty standard length of 48in.
• Which is 1.2192 meters
• The dimensions of the vault are 9.5x7.32x3.04 m

How much time do they have?

• It is stated in the show that the water will reach the bottom of the hole in 16 minutes and 15 seconds after they begin.
• They also state that the water is flowing into the vault at 7500 liters per minute
• 16*60+15= 925s
• 7500 liters per minute = 0.125m³/s
• 71.37m²is the cross sectional area of the bank
• 0.125m³/s / 71.37m² = 0.00175 m/s (How fast the water level is rising)
• So at 925s the water level is at 1.62m
• Using that measurement as a reference you can find the diameter of the hole to be 0.76 m and the circumference to be 2.39m
• Using the diameter as the distance in d = st, it was found that they would have 1,302.14 s to completely weld the antelock

How fast can someone weld?

• The Average welder can gas weld at a 10in. / min pace
• Which is 0.00423333m/s
• Which will take him 685.039s to weld the circumference of the circle

Therefore it is completely possible to break into the Bank of Spain(in the show)

• It is possible to break into the Bank of Spain as long as a welder could get in there and burn a hole in less than 617.101(in the show)
• In reality the water that floods the vault comes from the La Fuente de Cibeles fountain (48 m above the vault)
• The fountain would drain all 278m³ of water into

the vault

• Due to Pascal’s Principle this would exert a force

of 2,724,400N of force on anyone inside, enough to kill them

Works Cited

Shaw-Williams, Hannah, and Hannah Shaw-Williams

“Money Heist's Flooded Gold Vault Is Real: Here's How It Works.” ScreenRant, 2 Oct. 2021, https://screenrant.com/money-heist-flooded-gold-vault-real-bank-spain/#:~:text=The%20flooded%20gold%20vault%20introduced,in%20the%20Bank%20of%20Spain.

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“Types of Tube Lights.” The Home Depot, https://www.homedepot.com/c/ab/types-of-tube-lights/9ba683603be9fa5395fab90ca79c17d

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“Template by FTM.” The Physics of Death - Fatal Force, http://ffden-2.phys.uaf.edu/212_spring2011.web.dir/Brendon_Fuhs/force.html