fusso
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Sensitive substance from fiction?
I remember I read a detective story when I was small.
Someone put a glass of an (colourless IIRC) explosive liquid/solution in a hotel room and left. Then a violinist entered the room. The violinist
played violin in the room and all of a sudden the glass of explosive liquid/solution exploded. Later a detective found out that the explosion is due
to the violin's sound/vibrations detonating the liquid/solution.
Is this possible? What is/are the possible substance(s)? How could it be transferred to the room safely without explosion?
[Edited on 181225 by fusso]
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Sulaiman
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I guess nitroglycerine,
the liquid in glass would have a resonant frequency that could be excited by the correct note from the violin,
resonance would cause tiny droplets of nitroglycerine to jump about,
possibly causing a detonation ?
Or, if the glass can be shattered by resonance that could also detonate the nitroglycerine ?
Nitroglycerine can be transported.
[Edited on 25-12-2018 by Sulaiman]
CAUTION : Hobby Chemist, not Professional or even Amateur
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Tsjerk
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And to detonate you have to absorp it in cotton and give a heavy blow with a hammer. Just hitting a drop with a hammer will just make it fly away.
I don't believe this story is based on anything real.
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Morgan
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Seems like I vaguely remember some experiment gone wrong in an old college chemistry demonstration manual where they mixed two complex liquids and set
aside maybe 15 minutes later the flask or beaker exploded injuring a person with glass fragments - maybe one was some sort of amine. The account was
to caution students that even liquids could explode IIRC. or something along those lines.
I think maybe this manual might be in the SM library.or the manual was discussed at one time on the forum. It had the purple rain experiment in it.
[Edited on 26-12-2018 by Morgan]
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clearly_not_atara
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| Quote: | | Or, if the glass can be shattered by resonance that could also detonate the nitroglycerine ? |
IMO this is the most likely version. Sound alone won't detonate much, but sound + resonance can cause powerful vibrations in the right "receiver".
[Edited on 04-20-1969 by clearly_not_atara]
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Ubya
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Quote: Originally posted by clearly_not_atara  | | Quote: | | Or, if the glass can be shattered by resonance that could also detonate the nitroglycerine ? |
IMO this is the most likely version. Sound alone won't detonate much, but sound + resonance can cause powerful vibrations in the right "receiver".
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yea but to shatter a glass with sound is not something that really happens by accident, if a violin playing a random note for less than a second was
anough to shatter a glass full with liquid during a party or disco every glass would explode.
probably the writer exaggerated the same way as in Breaking Bad a single crystal of mercury fulminate (10-20g) could explode and shatter every window
of a room
[Edited on 27-12-2018 by Ubya]
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