Nitroglycerin is a thick liquid that really REALLY wants to violently explode. Like look at it the wrong way and it will explode levels of really keen.
To calm it down and make it safe to transport we mix it with something boring and stable like clay. Then we pack the mix in a tube and those tubes are what we call dynamite, and they are relatively safe to work with.
However over time the liquid nitroglycerin can seep out of the clay and then it goes back to being really keen to explode.
A bonus fact is this clay business was invented by a guy called Alfred Nobel, after whom the Nobel prizes are named.
Dynamite consists of nitroglycerine absorbed in a stabilizer. Dynamite “sweating” is the nitroglycerine separating from the stabilizer. That’s not good, because nitroglycerine is extremely sensitive to pressure.
Sweating is a problem in a lot of explosives, with reactive ingredients leaking out of the mixture and forming crystals (fragile crystals that when broken produce enough kinetic energy to set off an explosion)
The fun thing to do with sweating dynamite is to run your finger down the side collecting some of the ‘dew’ and then flicking it off in the direction of some object or the ground and enjoying the little explosion when it contacts the object or ground. I suppose sometimes the results can be more profound and less enjoyable but shit happens, still worth it.
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