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franciscosan
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Topic: The origin of the idea of explosions Posted: 05 Jul 2017 at 04:56 |
In honor of the 4th of July (and the upcoming Bastille day), here is a little bit about explosions, and how someone came up with the idea.
Everybody knows that the Chinese invented gunpowder, but the question is where did they get the idea for something that could explode. One place where the idea of explosions could have come from is putting wet, green bamboo rods into the fire, bamboo comes in sealed off sections, the fire heats the bamboo with the moisture inside, the moisture heats up, turns to steam and expands and the bamboo pops. It is not much, but it is a natural source for the idea of an explosion, which probably got alchemists searching how to replicate it. Or of course, there is what we learned in elementary school, that if you don't get all the bubbles out of poverty before firing it, it explodes and wrecks everybody else's homemade ashtray or candle holder. But that must be much later than putting bamboo on a fire.
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Posted: 05 Jul 2017 at 12:07 |
You mean like, "Oops," BOOM, "Bugger!".
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Posted: 09 Jul 2017 at 20:13 |
Is anyone out there? Or were you all killed in the explosion. If you were all killed, don't bother answering.
Thank you.
Have you seen my wife, Mr. Jones?Do you know what it's like on the outside? Don't go talking too loud, you'll cause a landslide, Mr. Jones. |
From "New York Mining Disaster 1925" by the Bee Gees.
Just a bit of light relief Frank.
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franciscosan
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Points: 10968
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Posted: 10 Jul 2017 at 07:22 |
"I'm not dead yet!" "shhhhh. be vewy, vewy, qwiet, were hunting wabbits!"
You don't have to be quiet, it is just that the fourth of July is over, and dogs don't feel like they have to crawl out of their skins any more due to fireworks. There is something called a thunder shirt, with which you kind of bundle the dog up, it hugs it and makes the dog feel (more) secure around thunder and fireworks. They're not cheap though.
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Posted: 10 Jul 2017 at 12:56 |
Franciscosan
"I'm not dead yet!" "shhhhh. be vewy, vewy, qwiet, were hunting wabbits!" |
I would never have thought you capable of such humour. Good one.
But getting back OP, do you think that, like a number of other scientific breaks through, it was in fact an accident?
Edited by toyomotor - 10 Jul 2017 at 12:59
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Vanuatu
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Posted: 10 Jul 2017 at 20:55 |
People must have known that bodies explode. Henry VIII 's fat ass exploded as they were lowering him into his coffin.
Looking at old photographs from the civil war you can see that average size men start to expand because of bacteria, with no mechanism for release things just keep expanding.
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Still round the corner there may wait, a new road or a secret gate. (J. R. R. Tolkien)
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franciscosan
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Joined: 09 Feb 2015
Location: Littleton CO
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Points: 10968
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Posted: 11 Jul 2017 at 09:03 |
Way back when my dad was in Boy Scouts, his patrol came across a bloated dead cow, some dummy tried hitting it with an axe. Boy, was that a mistake. So yes, things can explode, but applying fire was obviously one of the requirements in the discovery of gun powder. I would assume an "exploding body" to be more like a bubble popping. More like a belloop! rather than a bang! Maybe that is why muslims hurry to bury their dead, The Greek, Heraclitus of Ephesus (500 BC) said that 'bodies should be thrown out sooner than dung.'
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Posted: 11 Jul 2017 at 11:58 |
franciscosan wrote:
Way back when my dad was in Boy Scouts, his patrol came across a bloated dead cow, some dummy tried hitting it with an axe. Boy, was that a mistake. So yes, things can explode, but applying fire was obviously one of the requirements in the discovery of gun powder. I would assume an "exploding body" to be more like a bubble popping. More like a belloop! rather than a bang! Maybe that is why muslims hurry to bury their dead, The Greek, Heraclitus of Ephesus (500 BC) said that 'bodies should be thrown out sooner than dung.' |
Aha! So your father was a conspirator??
Greek Fire perhaps? Another OOPS, BOOM BUGGER!!!
Edited by toyomotor - 11 Jul 2017 at 11:59
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franciscosan
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Posted: 12 Jul 2017 at 07:46 |
The peasants are the water in which the fish swim. (Chairman Mao on Guerrilla Warfare).
"What is this 'wet' that I keep hearing about?" (One fish to another).
Edited by toyomotor - 12 Jul 2017 at 12:00
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Vanuatu
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Posted: 12 Jul 2017 at 15:01 |
Methane gas is explosive. A farmer is standing by bloated cow corpse holding a torch. Cow corpse explodes and enough methane reaches the flame to cause a flaming hot splash. I think it's plausible.
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Still round the corner there may wait, a new road or a secret gate. (J. R. R. Tolkien)
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Posted: 12 Jul 2017 at 15:49 |
Vanuatu
Of course it's plausible. You obviously watch Mythbusters too.
But I don't think farmers went about looking for bloated dead animals, with lighted torches, hoping for an explosion, do you?
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Vanuatu
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Posted: 12 Jul 2017 at 15:59 |
Well how many farmers stood in how many fields looking for a lost cow at night? Probably billions!
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Still round the corner there may wait, a new road or a secret gate. (J. R. R. Tolkien)
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franciscosan
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Posted: 13 Jul 2017 at 10:27 |
I don't think it was that kind of explosion (in my dad's case). I think it was more like hitting a balloon filled with rancid puss and other gross things, which upon being hit by an axe, "exploded" all over the on-lookers. Did I say that teenagers sometimes do things that are really stupid (but seemed like a good idea at the time)?
"Of all the barns in all of Chicago, Bessie had to walk into mine (or was it, "into a mine?)" boom!, with apologies to Humphrey Bogart. I think there is a Monty Python skit with exploding cows.
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Vanuatu
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Posted: 15 Jul 2017 at 16:25 |
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Still round the corner there may wait, a new road or a secret gate. (J. R. R. Tolkien)
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Posted: 15 Jul 2017 at 20:15 |
Sorry, I'm sort of locked in to OOPS, BOOM BUGGER!!
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Vanuatu
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Posted: 18 Jul 2017 at 13:58 |
Who are you going to BUGGER?
Edited by Vanuatu - 19 Jul 2017 at 07:41
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Still round the corner there may wait, a new road or a secret gate. (J. R. R. Tolkien)
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Posted: 18 Jul 2017 at 14:37 |
Vanuatu wrote:
Who are you going to BUGGER?  |
For the information of the uneducated, the word "Bugger", is common British and Australian slang used when a mishap occurs.
It can refer to a distasteful sexual act, but we don't talk like that.
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