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Strawberry Pop-Tart Blow-Torches (1994)

pmichaud.com

31–40 of 81 posts

Re: Strawberry Pop-Tart Blow-Torches (1994)

#36
post #7

We teach our Scouts how Doritos make excellent firestarters. Of course, you only need one or two to star a fire, yet a large family-size sack is required for a typical Scouts meeting.

In girl scouts, they used tampons! See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNYJr20dBPw for example

Re: Strawberry Pop-Tart Blow-Torches (1994)

#37
post #26

“At this point, the researchers also realized that the heat could inadvertently melt the adhesive cellophane and cause the flaming SPTs to suddenly eject from the toaster. Unfortunately, this did not occur.” That made me laugh out loud. This research paper could make for a pretty good intro to scientific writing example for any of your 101s.

Yes, I was also pretty moved by *Figure 6: Toaster Disposal* -- I love when research papers go 200% on context

Re: Strawberry Pop-Tart Blow-Torches (1994)

#39

Ah, the old pop-tart solid rocket booster. Sugar is a good propellant (though you’ll need an oxidiser if you’re going far up). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-propellant_rocket#%22Can...

Are small, retail model rockets allowed to be launched from large public spaces in the US still? Or do they require a license, realtime transponder, and a bunch of bureaucratic red tape like RC aircraft that is effectively a dead hobby with a Hobson's choice between privacy invasion and cost, over-criminalization, and non-participation.

Re: Strawberry Pop-Tart Blow-Torches (1994)

#40

Ah, the old pop-tart solid rocket booster. Sugar is a good propellant (though you’ll need an oxidiser if you’re going far up). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-propellant_rocket#%22Can...

In Andy Weir's The Martian one of the characters uses a mixture of sugar and liquid oxygen as an IED. Loads of energy in sugar. Glycerin is also quite energy dense. I used to do chemistry demos for high school chem classes and the potassium permanganate and glycerin demo was always a spectacle.

A similar lab demo I recall also is the gummy bear dropped into a test tube of molten potassium chlorate.

Rather spicy reaction ensues.

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