Life after detonation (2012)
sciencemadness.org
sciencemadness.org
American-made[1] "genuine" Pyrex is now also soda-lime, so just the name isn't proof enough any more, at least for cookware rather than labware.
[1]: and I think some stuff found in the UK, as I have a Pyrex-brand jugs and dishes that have got a distinct blue hue when seen edge-on.
Explosives are one of those things that provide for endless fascination to many and were a common topic in the earlier days of the internet, thankfully this now ancient post https://archive.is/JX6gl [alt: https://web.archive.org/web/20220117042510/http://www.operat...] with it's then highly unusual focus on safety precautions, temperature controls, and emergency measures killed and buried any possibility of me ever becoming curious enough to actually mess with that shit.
>Do you want to keep those hands? Then read this section very fucking carefully
Parts of this are poetry approaching that of Ignition!: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ignition-john-d-clark/11031...
I can tell tales of very expensive prototype drones getting a hard landing due to a cheap Chinese solder joint breaking, people being injured on cheap Chinese carbon fiber bikes, and on and on and on, without going into the home-grown Chinese product scandals that killed children with bad infant formula, etc.
Yet, the idea persists that "you can get the same thing cheaper" and from production mills in a country where quality is literally a foreign concept.
The longer I live, the more I find that it really is true that "Quality is it's own reason.". Good tools and equipment pay for themselves in durability, usability, safety, efficiency, higher quality output, just plain pleasure to use, and perhaps most importantly, stupid down-time events that never happen.
Better to buy second-hand high-quality equipment than new lower-grade junk.
And yes, we should be decoupling from China - all engagement does is empower the CCP.
One of the ones you can't is mixing water with dry ice. They put a rubber "hand" near a soda bottle, which they then fill up and cap tightly in the way you shouldn't do.
The damage to the "hand" was really impressive.
What a rough lesson to learn.
That's my takeaway here.
> I did a lot of small things wrong, including working at 4am while I was dead tired.
Hmm. Well. Maybe not then?
(As a betting man, I will also bet that this was not the first time that he had done this.)
This past July 4th was the first time I ever had a firework malfunction on me. A mortar blew up inside the tube as soon as the fuse burnt out. Typically they launch into the air first, then explode. The tube burst into smoky pieces that flew in every direction over my front yard. Someone could have lost an eye.
Or his left hand, as it were.
ETN is about 3 times more sensitive than PETN and is more sensitive to friction than the former mentioned compound. The decomposition of ETN is oxygen positive: C4H6N4O12 → 4 CO2 + 3 H2O + N2 + 3/2 O.
Why would any professional mess around with something that is 3x more sensitive than PETN ? Easier synthesis perhaps, but life changing or ending, if it detonates accidentally
PETN is the preferred explosive in the widely used "det cord", likely for a good reason, at 3x less sensitive.
Primary explosives are, as a rule, (and to perform their function) easy to set off, typically with heat or minor impact alone.
PETN just burns if you set it on fire. ETN detonates, which is what you want when you are building an electric initiator.
Making primary explosives is always sketchy business, since a spark or minor impact is often enough to set them off.