[HN Gopher] Strawberry Pop-Tart Blow-Torches (1994)
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Strawberry Pop-Tart Blow-Torches (1994)
Author : Keegs
Score : 78 points
Date : 2024-02-21 17:00 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.pmichaud.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.pmichaud.com)
| Keegs wrote:
| A post that predates CSS.
| robin_reala wrote:
| By a full 2 years and 4 months.
| curiouser2 wrote:
| Wow the HTML is so nice. I was surprised at first bc there are
| no </p> tags but apparently it's valid!
| https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/p#...
| WaitWaitWha wrote:
| I vaguely recall some movie where a jammed toaster with two pop-
| tarts, under the kitchen cabinets with other flammable items was
| used to create an accidental fire.
| h2odragon wrote:
| Overlooked alternative energy resource
| EA-3167 wrote:
| I read that 1993 Dave Barry article when it came out, as a teen,
| and it made me fall in lifelong love with Dave Barry's work. It's
| such a blast from the past to see the references to it here.
| robin_reala wrote:
| 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...
| EA-3167 wrote:
| I know sugar is hypergolic with Potassium Bromate, but I wonder
| if it's hypergolic with RFNA? That would be amazing... if
| stupidly dangerous.
| TeMPOraL wrote:
| > _RFNA_
|
| Isn't this one of those substances that is hypergolic with
| everything around them, including air, water, and test
| engineers?
| EA-3167 wrote:
| It's... a little spicy sure, and yeah maybe the acid burns
| and NO2 exposure are a bit lethal.
|
| But my god man, think of the specific impulse! ;)
| philipkglass wrote:
| You're thinking of chlorine trifluoride [1]. But red fuming
| nitric acid is also hypergolic with many fuels.
|
| [1] https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/sand-won-t-
| save-yo...
| hyperific wrote:
| 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.
| fullspectrumdev wrote:
| A similar lab demo I recall also is the gummy bear dropped
| into a test tube of molten potassium chlorate.
|
| Rather spicy reaction ensues.
| hyperific wrote:
| Also a good reaction. Nice orange/pink flame.
| 1letterunixname wrote:
| 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.
| bregma wrote:
| 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.
| dabluecaboose wrote:
| Cheez-its also work very well, and are easy to store in an
| altoids tin
| pimlottc wrote:
| Yeah, but it makes the mints taste terrible
| danavar wrote:
| Fritos too!
| hprotagonist wrote:
| pork rinds are also excellent.
| fortran77 wrote:
| In girl scouts, they used tampons! See:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNYJr20dBPw for example
| bemusedthrow75 wrote:
| Oh man. I remember this from '94. What a trip down memory lane.
| EvanAnderson wrote:
| Totally! Fun times.
|
| A friend and I used the "www.example.com/~username" webspace
| that came w/ our dialup accounts to make our own "site" with
| "experiments" inspired by this one around the same time.
| (Nothing involving fire, sadly.) We borrowed heavily from the
| tone. We even tried to make use of gratuitous initialisms, too.
| bemusedthrow75 wrote:
| This is the bit that always made me laugh:
|
| _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._
| bell-cot wrote:
| Meh. I've seen taller flames from a lone page of crumpled
| newsprint.
|
| If it's '90's Pyromania Day, then look for the old videos of
| charcoal BBQ's being fired up with LOX.
| jszymborski wrote:
| > Meh. I've seen taller flames from a lone page of crumpled
| newsprint.
|
| Are you Jason Bourne?
|
| https://youtu.be/4yEFqDqTFPc
| jszymborski wrote:
| From the mind that brought us pmwiki!
| ck2 wrote:
| Since everything is no longer sugar but government subsidized
| high-fructose-corn-syrup does this even work anymore?
| UniverseHacker wrote:
| Yes- they have about the same energy content and will burn
| about the same.
|
| High fructose corn syrup _is_ sugar, and is very similar to
| table sugar (sucrose). It 's about 42% fructose and 58%
| glucose, while table sugar (sucrose) is a disaccharide, of
| fructose and glucose bonded together in a 1:1 ratio, so table
| sugar ends up having slightly more fructose and slightly less
| glucose.
| ortusdux wrote:
| I think that demonstrations like this are great ways to teach
| kids healthy eating habits. My middle school health class
| included a joint day with a science teacher that left a lasting
| impression. Seeing the amount of energy contained in a single
| gummy bear put things into perspective!
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txkRCIPSsjM
| nullify88 wrote:
| One that left an impression with me was leaving a tooth in a
| cup of Coke and watching the tooth decay over multiple days.
| dang wrote:
| Related:
|
| _Strawberry Pop-Tart Blow-Torches (1994)_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31951308 - July 2022 (51
| comments)
|
| _Strawberry Pop-Tart Blow-Torches (1994)_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17745313 - Aug 2018 (32
| comments)
| pugworthy wrote:
| Scale this up and it would make a great Burning Man art piece for
| deep playa
| zahma wrote:
| "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.
| nlunbeck wrote:
| Yes, I was also pretty moved by *Figure 6: Toaster Disposal* --
| I love when research papers go 200% on context
| Kaibeezy wrote:
| Pre-2014 nitrocellulose ping pong balls... of fire!
| baryphonic wrote:
| I miss this era of the Web. Thanks for the enjoyable walk down
| memory lane!
| timekiller wrote:
| I destroyed 2 toaster ovens with pop tarts when I was 5. I would
| turn on the toaster and forget about it watching cartoons. I can
| confirm they burn very well.
| Nevermark wrote:
| One unfrosted Strawberry Pop-Tart has 190 (nutritional) calories
| [0], 4,184 joules, to burn.
|
| [0] https://smartlabel.kelloggs.com/Product/Index/00038000222511
| demondemidi wrote:
| I remember when this was the internet and it was fun and new and
| dorky and surfed with Mosaic.
| 1letterunixname wrote:
| It's too bad we can't run on LNG or H2 because of the improved
| energy / mass densities.
|
| 4 kcal/g: Carbs and protein
|
| 7: Ethanol
|
| 9: Fats and lipids
|
| 11: Gasoline
|
| 13: LNG
|
| 34: H2 *
|
| * Hydrogen storage and distribution infrastructure is an exercise
| for the reader.
| bityard wrote:
| Pages like this used to _be_ the world-wide web. Or most of it,
| anyway. I don't mean the (lack of) page style, I mean the
| writing. The irreverency of the subject matter. People shared
| whatever they thought was interesting, without regard to upvotes,
| likes, number of subscribers, and so on. I miss that a bit.
|
| (Also, it doesn't really get any more mid-90's than a tip of the
| hat toward Dave Barry...)
| aceazzameen wrote:
| One could argue that social media has taken its place.
| Although, the format makes it bite size and within a sea of
| algorithmic trash.
| jrockway wrote:
| In 1994 we were seeing this all for the first time. Everyone
| _had_ intrusive thoughts like "how big can I make a pop tart
| fire", but very few had the ability to make digital
| photographs and upload it to the Internet for all to see.
| Today, everyone has the ability to upload it to the Internet
| for all to see, so someone probably already had your
| intrusive thought and already made $10,000 off of it.
| shever73 wrote:
| Every time this pops up on HN, I'm reminded of the XKCD comic
| "Ten thousand"[0]
|
| Strawberry Pop-Tart Blow Torches was one of the first websites I
| looked at when I got connected to the Internet back in late '94.
| It makes me very happy to know that the site is still there and
| people are still finding it for the first time.
|
| Edit: forgot the footnote!!
|
| [0] https://xkcd.com/1053/
| green-salt wrote:
| I always smile whenever I read about SPT pyrotechnics.
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