Adam Savage Triggers Nitroglycerin Explosion With A Hammer! | Savage Builds
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 พ.ค. 2021
- It’s Hammer Time! Adam Savage recreates a scenario seen in countless old westerns: the nitroglycerin explosion! After a few failed attempts, he decides to trigger the substance’s impact sensitivity by hammering it. Will it be an explosive success?
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Now this is something I would love to see the slo-mo guys film at a very high frame rate
That would shed some light onto what actually happened there, indeed.
„Slow ahead, I Can Go Slow ahead ...You re gonna Need a Faster Camera“
Or beyond the press’s chronos setup!
He does have a TMX lying around, and quite possibly a robot arm if the lack of shoutout/'thanks to company for letting me use robo arm' in his latest video is anything to go by
watch the video the high-speed camera footage is shown in slow-mo.
When old nitro starts to crystallize and those microscopic crystals rub against each other, that's when it starts getting touch sensitive. So those westerns where they dig out ancient dynamite out of an abandoned mine, and it explodes from dropping, aren't far off.
its not about age but temperature
If it’s a real mine…… it’s time… there so constant it’s crazy (other than standing water)
From when westerns were based none of it was ancient it was new technology
You watched lost didn't you
A retired mining engineer was a docent at the Colorado Nining Museum. He told a story of how blasters working with nitro dynamite in winter would put the sticks they would us the next morning in their sleeping bags to keep it from freezing overnight.
Guess they redefined "safe position" after that flight of the bumble plate ^_^
Wouldn't be the first time anything involving explosions and Adam resulted in a redefinition of 'safe distance'.
@@tanall5959 well it went way over them, so it was a safe distance… vertically.
I think we need a "Safe position" with a thick steel roof. 😂
@@CloudHindlen i would go for a depleted uranium roof
Yeah, watching Adam work shows me how so many accidents happen on sets, even with “experts”. Adam is definitely a guy who gets blinded to the reality of some situations by his focus on the work.
WOW! Did not expect to see the 4 welded steel plates come apart or be sent into orbit.
Freaking awesome!
I bet Adam was missing the old Mythbusters bunker when that piece of oversized shrapnel went overhead.
Physics is awesome!
I think some of the liquid got in-between the plates as it was dripping down the side
@@HaroldKuilman straight pressure reflection down the plates to the ground and back up.
And from just a few grams of explosive too. Nuts!
Adam after the first drop: "Where's the kaboom? There was supposed to be an Earth-shattering kaboom!"
delays! delays!
The Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator was defective.
@@smokeystriper or from "super kami guru"
😍😆
Literally
When Adam is behind the structure it reminds me of Monty Python and the holy Grail when the French Knights were making fun of the British knights
Yes! I instantly thought that too. i think it was the double hand slap with the silent LOOK he gave. and the castle wall also.
"We are the knight who say NI!"
"Now go away, or I shall taunt you a second time!"
@@jerrygrimes8813 "We want! A shrubbery!"
Great minds think alike.
it's scarier to think the shock started on TOP of the steel plates, so it's the rebound that sent them flying into the air
I'm pretty amazed. I had no clue that stuff was that powerful!
I have to believe some of the NG leaked in between the plates so when it detonated, the expansion blasted the top two plates into the air. Impressive power. Messing around with the full bottle of nitro on that flimsy drop contraption was dangerous, I think.
@@dragonmeddler2152 I wonder if they poured more under the plates, but didn't show us
That was way more energetic than I dreamt possible. Wow!
The nitro is a liquid... it flows down... clearly some spilled under the plates.
I love the look on Adam's face when he says oh yeah you can clean it up by hitting it with a hammer
Light bulb moment! ;)
Considering the plates were _under_ the nitro (unless it leaked under them), the force that tossed them 75 feet was the _rebound_ of the steel being flexed downward!
Sounds probable. But I guess we would need the SloMoGuys to really see what happens...
I think the wooden blocks that were placed below the 4 steel plates compressed a little bit. The nitro exploding above the plate, forced the plate into the wood. The wood rebounding probably caused the plates to be sent into orbit.
@@TheCrazyInventor That's possible, but steel is also quite springy, so it could have merely either flexed or compressed and it's own rebound would be sufficient.
@@TheCrazyInventor the wood breaking to smithereens would also absorb a lot of impact as well.
Only 1 plate went flying and got stuck in the dirt. Adam makes a mistake and says that it is 2 plates. at 5:55 you can see that something goes flying up very fast ( maybe one or two plates , who knows ). Then you see a single plate flying to the right. Then you see that there are two more plates remaining. The initial plate construction was a total of 4 plates ( at 4:25 ) , so we can deduce that 4 - 2 - 1 = 1, so therefore it was only 1 plate that got was flying overhead.
coolest thing a harbor freight ball hammer ever did
You should see what my wife can do with an hammer!!
@@Nicolasdu5 …ex-wife?
... and the last.
@@Nicolasdu5 dont worry, i've seen that.
*Hottest
Watching the metal plate fly overhead, I was like "It's the cannonball all over again."
Ive working in mining, specifically drill and blast, and from what I've heard anecdotally the concern wasn't so much with dropped bottles of nitro per se, but that old dynamite sticks would sweat beads nitro out of them when improperly stored, making them very dangerous to handle as the nitro glycerin was no long stabilized within the clay and if you were rough with it accidents could happen.
From what I've heard from folks who explore old silver mines 'round here is that old nitroglycerin that's been exposed to the elements starts to crystalize, and crystalline nitroglycerin is more volatile.
Dzień dobry pozdrawiam z Polski
that camera man's for sure looking for a raise the way he followed those 12" steel plates @discoveryaustralia haha
5:42 boy I love CO(CH3)2 nitrogen
its not acetone anymore, its nitrotone :)
So thats how we make nitroglycerine its simple just get glycerine from medical store and concentrated HNO3 after that mix it up and youre done
Yeah, even if 95% of the time the drop doesn't detonate it, the detonation is big enough that you just don't want to be anywhere nearby when the natural one comes up.
Watching the bottle continue to not break was awesome. Especially the little "tink" it gave after the dramatic music and slow mo lol
Adam Savage: Drops a glass bottle of nitro from 6 feet on to the concrete -- doesn't break
Me: Leans over to close my car door and my sunglasses fall off my lap and hit the drive way -- dozens of broken pieces everywhere.
Ya gotta buy the cheap sun glasses. 🤣🤣🤣
Must be nitro coated lenses!
I’d hate to see what your sunglasses do when hit with a hammer on 2” of welded steel plate
You forgot to say, "My $150 sunglasses."
Those are some horribly cheap sunglasses then
Some explosives are really fickle, they do not explode when you expect them to, and then they explode for barely any reason.
that flying steel plate was dangerous!
5:45 btw you miss the nitrogen gas in the animation
Thank you.
Acetone ≠ nitrogen gas.
It's a pretty big oversight.
The nitrogen atoms are blown out of existence apparently.
@@jameswatkins7763 fusion/fission reaction lol, though all the neat isotopes are disappointingly not shown
Check out itrogen triiodide which can explode spontaneous.
@@CBlarghvery big thanks for telling me the shown molecule is acetone. i was going crazy of thinking "wait...thats defininetely not nitrogen, but what then?!" web searching for "H3C CO Ch3" did not help either
3:04 was probably the best Homer "DOUH!" moment I've ever seen if there was one🤣🤣🤣
i love the moment Adam hears "hit it with a hammer" and his face just changes, and you know what that means, hahaha
Mythbusters is my favorite show of all time, and I am so glad that you are still keeping the magic alive. I know that you really love doing what you do. Keep it up man!
Yo hate to rain on your parade but he stopped doing that show like 8 years ago or something
"it would seem that it's reputation is warranted."
Yup.
never thought a bottle not breaking could be so hilarious 😂
Definitely made me laugh…..😅
Me looking at the thumbnail: "Why is Adam dressed up like an astronaut dinosaur?"
Me after watching the video: "Adam can dress up however he wants. That was ****ing AMAZING!"
I thought it was some kind of dinosaur costume too
He's getting ready for a casting call on a new Mel Brooks movie.
I would not have wanted to be the unprotected guy walking out to balance that bottle on a small board held up by nothing more than a metal rod.
yeah but from what we saw that wasnt an effective means to make it explode. so id be willing to be that guy i just wouldnt carry a hammer on my side.
My thoughts exactly.
I'd imagine that he knew the specific danger and that it would be unlikely to detonate. As the explosives expert, that's what his training and experience are all about. Still, though..... It wouldn't be me!! LOL
In retrospect, me either.
"... one of the scariest explosives ever known to man." Rig: a thin rod supported by nothing but gravity and friction.
Love the expression on the explosives guy, knows exactly what is going to happen but playing along because Adam's enthusiasm is infectious.
he kinda messed up by letting a giant steel plate go flying in the air tho
Nope, didn't expect that, at all... Amazing.
3:05 I'm getting a French taunter vibe. I worry what Adam is going to do in my general direction.
I'll go away. I do not wish to taunted a second time.
I explode in your general direction.
Oh yeah. Thank you for that mental image. There is clearly some unpredictable humor lurking around any corner out there.
I told them we already have one!
5:43 “... reform as nitrogen gas” except that you’re showing a graphic for propanone (aka acetone)
Came to make the same observation - the N2 was conspicuously absent from their graphic.
glad im not the only one that noticed that XD
same here but only managet to name it as propane'ish. Im rusty :/
Where’s the N2? There was supposed to be some Earth-shattering N2!
Ok, I’ll show myself out …
weren't they contractually obliged to show the wrong formulas for safety reasons during MythBusters? Same rules apply I would say.
This guy is my hero. I want him back on the television and I want to see him weekly.
Was not expecting the many attempts. Amazing how things never go to plan 😂
Loved this, we need more of these experiments on the channel!
The NG probably seeped in between the welded plates due to capilary action after crushing the bottle. It has a tendency to detonate in thin filmas, also a low velocity mode that would be ideal for sending that plate skywards... At the powder factories it is usually handled safely in bottles. If the NG is not properly cleaned after nitration it can become quite sensitive, decomposition is autocatalytical... if You se some brown fumes - run fast.
"There it is, one of the scariest explosives know to man!"
*[Chlorine Trifluoride has mentioned you in a comment]*
Chlorine trifluoride is not an explosive though, it is a highly toxic hypergolic agent. There are plenty of shock sensitive explosives that are much scarier than nitroglycerine but nitroglycerine is an explosive that is extremely well known via movies and books.
Fun fact, Alfred Nobel (founder of the Nobel prizes) invented dynamite (basically nitroglycerine in a clay filler to make it more safe to handle), gelignite and various other explosives (e.g. ballistite, the precursor to modern smokeless powder and commonly still used today as rocket propellent) and founded the Nobel prize foundation as repentance for the horror he had inflicted on the world.
[Azidoazide azide has entered the chat]
@@YCbCr this is *honestly* the chemical I should have thought of. Alternatively, nitrogen triiodide would probably be eager to get in on this 😏
Octanitrocubane C8N8O16
@@21Walls I've got a feeling some of us may have read Derek Lowe's Things I Won't Work With :) Fascinating topic!
That was just freaking awesome! Adam never disappoints his fans.
Back in the 80's I was a chemistry nerd in high-school. Nicked the three ingredients, made some nitroglycerine in an abandoned shack and stabilized it with dust saw. Made for some loud fun on new year celebrations
My dad and I made some nitro when I was about 15 yrs old. around 1970
Of course, we only made a few drops, but it was surprisingly hard to detonate.
Interesting experiment, just to say ‘we did it’.
That flying steel plate was lethal schrapnel.
Hail the cameraman for finding and tracking an entirely unexpected event.
amazing force from a puddle, not contained.
Getting some Wile-E-Coyote vibes from this video lol.
Poor groundhog probably didn’t see that coming
Well I mean. If a tornado launches a boulder at your house and you see it coming, do you have time to get out of the way?
Thanks for finding the plates - that was something I was extermely interested in when you showed it overhead.
What’s up with the epic chemistry fail at 5:43?
I carry a bottle of nitro in work bag. It's called angine it's used to help with my heart problems.
I had that too couple of mgs of nitro/shot, whole bottle contained about 0.1gr dissolved in propylene glycol and ethanol, even if you spray out half the bottle and let the ethanol evaporate you can not get a kaboom;)
5:42 That's acetone though, not nitrogen gas.
I noticed it too... Disappointed me lol
He is not a chemist so he prob doesnt know the the difference
04:20 his face when the dude mentioned the 🔨 hahah
The other dude looking over the wall, like, "WTH?!" pretty funny!
Uhh, the molecule highlighted at 5:42 is acetone, not nitrogen.
I like how the bloke is just dressed in normal clothes and adam is dressed like the bloke from zero dark thirty
Was not expecting any of this especially after it just sat there for awhile and still was that powerful of a blast 😳
That's not a Nitrogen Gas :\ 5:41
In fact, there's no nitrogen in there.. oops
And randomly making acetone I guess.
This was cool
this video completely satisfied my curiosity for nitroglycerine. thank you
1:25 the little clink of the bottle after all that buildup is hilarious
Need to get the slow mo guys to record stuff like this!
Fun fact: Nitroglycerine was often transported by horse and cart on rutted, potholed, dirt roads. It was contained in large glass jars on a bed of straw. Accidents were not at all uncommon. One day, a jar broke and the contents were absorbed by some clay that was left in the cart from a previous delivery. Alfred Nobel (yes, that one) discovered that the clay mixture was much more stable than pure nitroglycerine. He put the mixture into a cardboard cylinder and named it Dynamite.
There should be a award for those kind.
of inventions.
Like reverse darwin
Or that was a close one but somehow we benefited from somones near miss award
That was awesome! DO MORE WITH NITRO!
Adam giving us a long-winded description and countdown?????!!!!! Yay!!!! It’s like a Mythbusters rebirth!
If I remember correctly, there were two formulas used to make Nitro. It was the first variant that was super unstable that created the legend of randomly exploding nitro. The formula you were using was a more stabilized one that required the higher impact to detonate.
I was assuming that age/improper storage was the factor. I know all sorts of things become unstable with age and explosives are one of them. I assumed nitroglycerin was one of those things.
you wrong. Nitroglycerin exists in one "formula". It's stability depends on impurities and other factors.
@@ph08nyx I think he means two "formulas" as-in "recipe", like "add reagent A to reagent B, stir for 30 minutes, add reagent C and stir vigorously for 30 seconds. Distil, then add reagent D before it cools, allow to settle, then skim off the TNG that floats to the surface"
Not "formulas" as-in "chemical formulas"
@@samuelmellars7855 preparations
@@ph08nyx By formula he means different way of making it resulting in more and different impurities and other factors making it more unstable...
You might get it to go if you drop the bottle though, if you get a water-hammer like effect. Cavitation is REALLY effective at getting things like this to go high order.
I love Kilroy next to you cautiously peering over the wall. :-D
Props to the cameraman that he was able to record the SteelPlates mid flight :3
It's possible that modern nitro glycerin is more stable, (or tends to be), being made under a more exact process. It's also possible the bottles used today, have a different shock tolerance and material properties that are less likely to result in a detonation.
But the former seems more likely, as you could end up with 2 batches of nitro glycerin that had different characteristics, given different methods of processing.
The synthesis is verry easy. There is not much that you could do to ge different products.
Nitroglycerin is shock sensitive but you need an decent impact to set is off. I tested it with steel on steel. You really have to put some force into it bevore it goes off.
Nah I've seen an old video of nitro being made, and I was amazed at how rough and careless they were being.
The thing is that people watched too many hollywood westerns where it's shown to be crazy sensitive. If it was really that bad, nobody would make it in 900 pound batches like they used to do in the past.
Then its not pure Nitro Glycerine. I worked in a factory falling 400mm it ecplodes. Also whats your temp there? I think its got glycol in it to stabilize it. When its nitrated it is very very unstable.
2:54 Props to the editor. That's comedic editing done right!
I’ll admit I had very low hopes for this experiment at first. I am very surprised and impressed
Question Adam, was there an air pocket in the bottle? If not that along with temperature below about 75F would account for the results you got in the first 2 tests. Maybe try one that is only 1/2 filled on a warmer day.
Nitroglycerin in liquid form is sensitized by cavitation from shock waves moving through the liquid. As it is highly incompressible, very small bubbles are collapsed by passage of a shock wave. The air is rapidly heated, causing plasma ignition.
There was only 1oz of nitro in the bottle. It wasn’t full.
6:55 The plate seems to explode before the hammer hits it. Also, what is that little thing hanging out from under the metal plates? Prepped explosive maybe?
Yeah, the video doesn't show all the frames up to the impact making it look like there was something between the plates. But it's just an editing error. There was nothing between the plates. (maybe a little nitro soaked in there from the broken bottle.)
6:59 is the last frame before the next has everything flying after detonation.
Best demonstration of what a mere ounce of spilled nitroglycerin is truly capable of!
This is one of two things that settled my curiosity about local abandoned mines.
Stay out. Stay alive.
You know I really thought fr a sec he was actually gonna just walk up to the bottle and hit it
I had no idea that nitro has that much explosive power just in puddle form.
This is way more than I can imagine wow
"Well there's your problem!"
Classic Buster
Note: most of the energy went up into the air. If this detonation were contained, that plate could have gone much higher!
I heard the whistling of that steel plate and went into duck and cover here ... great video Adam and Crew
I absolutely lost it on the 2nd take. This is science at it's finest! If at first you don't succeed, try, try again
well, looks like he nitro leaked around from the top of the plate to in-between the plates... that's why the top two went sailing.
Where did the Hammer go though? 😅
Is the Tesla still in space? If its cameras are still running, they might have caught it passing by...
Serving a meal on the flight....
Legend has it, it is still up there.
This is insanity! So cool to see irl
Wow that had more energy than i thought it would
5:41 uuhm...while you're correctly saying that it forms Nitrogen gas, the molecule you are showing there is Acetone and is utterly wrong! How on earth did that happen, it's not even remotely close...
Yeh I noticed that too, I thought my brain had broken.
What about temperature and impurities?
Would hot, impure nitroglycerin be more sensitive?
I've heard (dubious) stories of people warming up sticks of jelly and throwing them against a wall to make it go off.
I've seen a lot of welds survive some wild forces, to see those welds shear like that, hoowee! Exciting stuff!!
"It's Hammer time!" That was a cool video. I've worked with different explosives in the Marines but never nitro.
"Nitrogen gas"
Not sure if nitrogen gas is a compound made of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen.
No, Nitrogen is a element.
@@keithgibson568 5:40, he says nitrogen gas as the screen highlights a compound that contains no nitrogen.
5:44 could you guys get your animations fact-checked by someone who passed highschool chemistry? Because that's acetone, not nitrogen.
Lol explains why there was no nitrogen in the "nitrogen gas"
Super cool stuff
Adam: "that's still a dangerous zone, right?"
Guy: "yeah, nitroglycerin's still an explosive. if that got hit with a hammer, it'd ring your bell.
Adam: *idea*
Another movie myth (?) is it gets sensitive to temperature and age, I'd like to see that tested!
The one I've often seen is dynamite getting old and having the nitro start to weep out, and then it can go off if it is dropped or hit. No idea where to get old dynamite though!
@@mildpandemic3944 I think you'll have to make some, yourself, as they have eliminated that issue by refining the mixture.
yes it does
@@mildpandemic3944 kieselguhr clay is mixed in to prevent that happening.
props to the pyrotechnics guy that made it look like that was just the nitro exploding . funny how it started under and behind and not where the actual spill was
Yep, and also had all the things already prepared, as the "fast builded" hammer device ;)
Indeed it seems to be the case especially when you look at it frame by frame. It just doesn't add up.
Hammer 🔨 time indeed!
I thought by now Adam Savage would have an explosive manufacturers license.
Someone please explain how "Nitrogen Gas" is a combination of Carbon Hydrogen and Oxygen (5:45), and not N2 or something like that
I wonder if the volume of nitroglycerin effected the initial result? Maybe if they'd entirely filled the bottle?
The story I grew up with was about miners back in the gold rush who'd carry nitroglycerin in thermos bottle backpacks. Occasionally, someone with that job would trip or fall backwards, resulting in nothing being left by a crater and maybe a foot.
Well by their math, to compare, I have a tiny 45ml coffee syrup bottle. If that was half full, say, 20mls, the explosive expansion would result in 24 litres of gas expanding at 17,000 mph (27,358 Kph). If it was near full, say 40mls, that's 48 litres of gas. If those thermoses were only 1-2 litres worth, yeah, they would essentially become shrapnel going 20,000 kph or so. XD
Another way to consider it, there's very little compression possibility for that expansion of gas with that amount of force, so an AREA of 24 ish litres (in the example of the 20mls of liquid) would be shredded instantly. Someone falling on their back would have a laundry bucket sized portion of their body essentially turned into high speed shrapnel. Outside of that, the continuing force of that 17,000 mph shockwave would cause further damage. Pretty darn grim!
not to mention the nitro back then was often less pure. and impurities could effect the impact sensitivity
Impact from bottle drop simply isn't strong/concentrated enough to set it off.
Hammer impacts on very small area in very short time, probably a few microseconds with a thin layer of NG in between, so the acceleration/impact force is a few magnitutes more than glass hitting steel, with NG far away inside the bottle.
Maybe if that person would fall down a cliff, the scenario would be plausible. But just tripping backwards? Not enough impact force.
I like the way that they used drum gear to hold the platform!
Science and explosions can’t ask for much more
would be hilarious if the explosives guy was putting out bottles that were empty