im sure everyone has seen sticks on dynamite in movies and history documentaries. they even used it in myth-busters a few times i think, but how much force would it really take to set it off?
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Yay, explosives. I love explosives. They are fun. I’ve actually made nitroglycerin. It was a controlled training environment for work, not a backyard experiment. Do not try yourself.
There are a lot of factors that effect explosive sensitivity. Generally, the sensitivities fall into 3 categories: heat, shock, and friction. Nitroglycerin is pretty sensitive to all three. But as stated before, how sensitive is related to several variables. How well it was made is one. Impurities or leftover acid from manufacture can increase the sensitivity greatly. Next is what condition its in due to age/storage. Nitroglycerin is normally a liquid, but it can crystalize over time. These crystals are extremely sensitive to shock and friction. So if you pick up a stick of dynamite that has begun forming crystals, you are gonna have a bad time. Breaking a crystal (shock) or dragging them across each other (friction) will very easily start a detonation.
Fresh, well-made nitro is less sensitive than what I’ve talked about before, but its still very sensitive. You can handle/move it carefully without worrying about it detonating. It does fail the hammer test though. Yes, the hammer test is a real thing. You place a small amount of the explosive being tested on a piece of metal (or a hammer) and tap it with a hammer. A bang means its pretty sensitive. Nitroglycerin goes bang, every time.
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