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Post by the light works on Aug 15, 2013 15:11:51 GMT
as for the mercury fulminate - I would have been more interested to see how hard they had to throw it to make it go bang. the fact that you can put enough explosive in a building to damage it is hardly earth shaking. Perhaps, the build team could have made a calibrated device (robotic/mechanical arm or hammer) to figure the minimum force needed to make it explode and then find out if it is possible for a human to throw with that level of force. it could easily be velocity based.
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Post by Cybermortis on Aug 15, 2013 15:34:19 GMT
Remember that Mercury Fulminate isn't something you can just buy at the local WalMart. They could only get access to it by finding someone who had a licence to make it, and that he was making it by hand.
This reduced both the amount they had available for testing, and the amount of time they had to do all the testing. Which would have made specific testing of the explosives properties impractical.
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Post by ironhold on Aug 15, 2013 19:24:06 GMT
I tried to watch it today, but wound up missing the last few minutes.
My oldest brother and his wife left their kids with us to babysit them while they did some house-hunting. Mom took them to the park so that I would have time to get a few things done around the house, but they came back at the 56-minute mark in the show.
Did the super-stuff eat through the fiberglass tub? That's the part I missed.
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Post by The Urban Mythbuster on Aug 15, 2013 19:41:26 GMT
Unfortunately not. The pig became a puddle of goo, but the tub remained intact.
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Post by ironhold on Aug 15, 2013 20:16:19 GMT
Then at this point, perhaps the *only* way anything might have happened would be if there was a small crack or hole in the tub (which can and does happen), at which point the "whatever it was" had a chance to leak through and affect the floor itself.
But even then, the tub likely would have fallen through instead of just remnants of the tub.
Also, I noted that they never bothered using the gun as part of the full-scale.
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Post by OziRiS on Aug 15, 2013 20:30:50 GMT
Wouldn't have mattered if there was a leak in the tub. The acid overflowed after being poured in and besides looking a little charred, the floor took almost no damage at all.
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Post by the light works on Aug 16, 2013 14:39:20 GMT
Remember that Mercury Fulminate isn't something you can just buy at the local WalMart. They could only get access to it by finding someone who had a licence to make it, and that he was making it by hand. This reduced both the amount they had available for testing, and the amount of time they had to do all the testing. Which would have made specific testing of the explosives properties impractical. but if they started with human force and dialed up the air pressure incrementally, until it went boom, they would only be using one sample.
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Post by Cybermortis on Aug 16, 2013 15:29:22 GMT
Remember that Mercury Fulminate isn't something you can just buy at the local WalMart. They could only get access to it by finding someone who had a licence to make it, and that he was making it by hand. This reduced both the amount they had available for testing, and the amount of time they had to do all the testing. Which would have made specific testing of the explosives properties impractical. but if they started with human force and dialed up the air pressure incrementally, until it went boom, they would only be using one sample. But that would require conducting the test, waiting to make sure everything was safe and there was no delayed detonation, then resetting the equipment (including cameras) and starting again. Their expert was only going to be available for a short period of time - I'd suspect only a day at most - so they simply wouldn't have the time needed to run such experiments.
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Post by User Unavailable on Aug 16, 2013 21:26:54 GMT
as for the mercury fulminate - I would have been more interested to see how hard they had to throw it to make it go bang. the fact that you can put enough explosive in a building to damage it is hardly earth shaking. Perhaps, the build team could have made a calibrated device (robotic/mechanical arm or hammer) to figure the minimum force needed to make it explode and then find out if it is possible for a human to throw with that level of force. Well, if you really want to know, all you have to do, is find out the amount of force the hammer of a period correct reproduction, percussion cap firearm, imparts to the cap/nipple of the firearm and see if a human can match that force. Mercury Fulminate was used in percussion caps, beginning in the 1830s. Mercury Fulminate continued use into the cartridge era and continued use into the 20th century. Mercury Fulminate was also used in cannon primers, both of the friction type and percussion type.
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Post by breesfan on Aug 17, 2013 3:13:09 GMT
I forgot to DVR this when a friend mentioned it. Doesn't sound like it was very interesting though.
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Post by silverdragon on Sept 24, 2013 8:18:43 GMT
This episode aired last night in the UK..
Couple of points. Old joke, a scientist just invented the worlds most caustic substance, but now cant find a bottle to keep it in....
OK, so, I have transported a substance known as "Etch", I wont go into details, just that Its transported in Plastic tubs/flasks/bottles...... It WILL react with Fibreglass.... but NOT the gel-coat. The gel coat is the outer layer of fibreglass that you lay down first, its a plastic type substance that makes fibreglass waterproof, and is, thankfully, non-reactive to many substances. I suspect this is the reason why the fibreglass bath tub didnt melt.... The bath tub is designed to resist the actions of Peroxide?.... As in, the stuff many people bleach hair with. Its also designed to deal with industrial strength cleaners.....
The bath didnt melt....
I bet I could make it melt though.... Drop a few spanners on the bath surface, get some "wear and tear" on it, some deep scratches.... not enough to make it leak in normal use, but enough to let special sauce get a hold.....
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Post by freegan on Sept 26, 2013 0:03:30 GMT
as for the mercury fulminate - I would have been more interested to see how hard they had to throw it to make it go bang. the fact that you can put enough explosive in a building to damage it is hardly earth shaking. Perhaps, the build team could have made a calibrated device (robotic/mechanical arm or hammer) to figure the minimum force needed to make it explode and then find out if it is possible for a human to throw with that level of force. Why bother building a throwing robot when it is blatantly obvious that it is impact force that detonates the fulminate? Just drop various metal weights on it from various heights and then do the math.
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Post by silverdragon on Sept 26, 2013 8:17:30 GMT
Er... I have this mental image of Adam on top of the building dropping those big circular weights, then apologising profusely to his neighbours as the resultant bang sets off all car alarms in the neighbourhood?.....
Other than that, its a fair enough plan.... But... WOULD Mercury Fulminate detonate from any human caused impact.
And then again, if it itself was dropped, say thrown off the top of a quarry, would its terminal velocity as it fell, be enough to create detonation?....
Why not just use the important ingredients of Dynamite instead.....
Edit, Problems with "Angry Bears... I am trying to edit this post but keep getting "Server errors" from Proboards?....SD
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Post by silverdragon on Sept 26, 2013 8:53:43 GMT
Lets try a NEW post?....
Ok, My Dad was to all extents, CSI back in the 60's to 80's in the UK, before the term CSI was invented, but thats the job he did...
He was called out to a failed safe break-in.... The safe was stood there intact, beaming in all its glory, amongst the wreckage of the room..... My Dad went to collect what forensics he could, fingerprints, bits of detonator, etc... Then a small voice cam from behind... "Erm.. I think these small plasticine balls are Nitroglycerine.... ".. this from the other officer with him The small balls about the size of a grain of rice were EVERYWHERE. My Dad was told "Walk out backwards in your own footprints carefully...."
The fear was that merely by TREADING on Nitro- , that it would/could explode?....
Under forensic evaluation, it turned out that the nitro used was "A hurried mix", and it contained exactly the wrong mix to actually detonate... The reason it was EVERYWHERE was that the blasting cap used had just pushed the whole lot out in an aerosol type spray instead of detonating it.
So, Myth.... I know from Hazard Goods explosive training that the raw ingredients of Nitro- (and dynamite) are HIGHLY sensitive to any form of impact. So much so that the transportation of them in liquid form is banned in many countries under strategic arms limitation laws..... Ok, slight exaggeration, they are banned from transportation because in "the early days", trucks literally DID explode, in a way that invented new post codes (Zip codes) and you didnt pick up the wreckage, you brushed it up... results much like that certain cement mixer.....?...
So, my question is, COULD my Dad have detonated Nitro- by just walking on it?....
As it turned out, the mix my Dad experienced was so bad it was as inert as play-dough.... They didn know that at the time... At the time, My Dad said he nearly needed a change of uniform?... a Broon Trooser moment.....
But just say that HAD got it right for this discussion....
And then, does it matter what type of blasting cap was used?... From what I was told, and my Dad was not allowed to tell me much, it was basically one of those detonators as used by Railway workers in remote places that they put on the track... if a train runs over it, they they didnt see, its goes POP, loudly, that warns workers to clear the track.......
If its not powerful enough to actually detonate the main explosive, would a low power blasting cap actually aerosol the explosives used and cover everything with a potentially lethal coating?.....
In case you were wondering, yes, under further investigation, they got enough evidence to make a strong case to arrest "The usual suspect". The room was sanitized with a Hoover.... when they knew it was safe to do so.... The contents of the safe in question?... Just some paperwork. The valuable stuff was "Elsewhere" (Not disclosed) as this wasnt the first time someone had tried to break this safe.... It was a couple of tons in weight, it was fireproof, it was too heavy to move, and was used as a fire-safe by the people that had moved in to the building after the original owners sold up.
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Post by the light works on Sept 26, 2013 14:46:34 GMT
hence the third rule of hazmat: "If you see the driver running, try to keep up"
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Post by Cybermortis on Sept 26, 2013 15:43:41 GMT
The important ingredient in dynamite was nitroglycerine, which is known for being so unstable dropping it, pouring it or just leaving it in sunlight can cause it to detonate*. Dynamite simply stabilised the nitro by soaking it in sawdust, which made it safer to handle and transport, but over time the nitro would sweat out making it dangerous - which is why 'dynamite' today isn't really dynamite.
(*So yes, if your dad had stepped on 'pure' nitro it could have exploded.)
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Post by the light works on Sept 26, 2013 15:49:18 GMT
The important ingredient in dynamite was nitroglycerine, which is known for being so unstable dropping it, pouring it or just leaving it in sunlight can cause it to detonate*. Dynamite simply stabilised the nitro by soaking it in sawdust, which made it safer to handle and transport, but over time the nitro would sweat out making it dangerous - which is why 'dynamite' today isn't really dynamite. (*So yes, if your dad had stepped on 'pure' nitro it could have exploded.) or looking at it wrong, or listening to Justin Bieber on the radio or any other thing that might make it grumpy. which was why Mr. Nobel's neighbors finally forced him to do his research on a barge in the middle of a lake; and then still would have preferred he not experiment at all.
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Post by Cybermortis on Sept 26, 2013 15:55:02 GMT
When you live next door to someone who raises the roof every day it does tend to lower property values....
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Post by the light works on Sept 26, 2013 16:18:05 GMT
When you live next door to someone who raises the roof every day it does tend to lower property values.... "we're sorry we shot your house with a cannon, and we promise to be more careful in the future" attributed to Adam Savage
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Post by freegan on Sept 26, 2013 18:27:02 GMT
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