Gilded

They don't ship ANYTHING internationally anymore? Goddammit.

From where? United Nuclear? Or some company in UK? I think £25 for one is somewhat cheap.

I think I'll go and check a local paint shop out tomorrow. The times I've been in such stores, I haven't really seen any aluminum powder. Might be a) not looking carefully enough b) they don't have any. I think it's used in boat painting or something...

Hmmm... Hydrocarbons have fairly low boiling points. Hey by the way, how pentane can be a gas in room temperature if it's boiling point is 35 Celsius? Does it have something to do with pressure?

Petroleum ether (which isn't an ether at all) has boiling points varying from 20-75C.

I wonder if people get suspicious when I go and buy aluminum powder and then go scrape some rust off a car or something.

Umm, have you tried it YT, and yet lived to tell the tale? Or was it just a small quantity? I wonder if hot acid is good for PINE TABLES.

Next time on SF: Nitrating toluene next to burning sparklers in a moist room with lots of cesium lying around!

All elements with atomic number 1-82 have stable isotopes, with the exception of promethium (61) and technetium (43). I think cesium has the MOST isotopes, but as I said, only one stable. :<

"ardiation can lead to radiation sickness and cell mutations, which could be good, but in 99% of cases is bad and possibly deadly for you."

The actual radiation sickness (nausea, exhaustion) is caused by 1 Sv dose within 24h. 6 Sv is generally considered to be a deadly dose. And yes, cell mutations suck big time. As you might imagine, pregnant women aren't allowed to work with radioactive stuff.

I could have answered it right away if you're looking a pure element that does that. But it seems that you want ANY liquid compound that boils at that temp?

Dammit people! Cesium isn't necessarily radioactive. And if you haven't noticed, any element can be radioactive, depending on the isotope! I think tin has the most stable isotopes, BUT because cesium has only one, 133, (which is the only you're ever likely to see a visible amount of) it doesn't make it an element that should be discriminated... There's a whole bunch of elements out there that are waaaay more deadly than cesium. And Lance, cesium doesn't really get stuck to the body, it goes through quite quickly, and comes out with the other crap in urine. Strontium-60 and the like are the ones you should watch out for: The body thinks they're calcium or something else nice, and then they just sit in your body, irradiating your cells, for the rest of your lives (depending on the half-life of the isotope though). AND, cesium chloride is used in cancer medicine! It's a lifesaver more than a killer if you ask me.

Every element is sacred,

every element is good.

Every element is needed

in your neighborhood!

(Except maybe for the ones with atomic number over 98 )

The sparks are probably not-so-small chunks of BP that fly out, which are less present in an ultra fine mix.

Radioactive stuff in water isn't nice either. Even though it's mostly cesium and such that goes quickly through the body here, having a homemade well in Finland isn't generally a good idea. :<

Me too. How fine is it? Enough for a THERMITE THAT WILL DESTROY ALL EVIL PINE TABLES OUT THERE!? Whoops. Got carried away a bit. Sorry.

If there is, I haven't heard about it.

"I can probably get it here in iceland somewhere"

Is there anything to fertilize in Iceland? Just kidding... I bet trees aren't that plenty but hey, KNO3 is used for lawn fertilizing isn't it?

"if all else fails, urinate on manure and wait for the bacteria to take action"

It will make a wonderful decoration if you place it in the middle of your backyard lawn, too.

Yep, bud's right (and that's what I meant). If you made like a liter of the stuff and nitrated .5g cellulose, then you definately have some nitronium ions going on in there. You might as well nitrate something else too.

From what I've understood, the nitronium ions that sulphuric and nitric acid creates are mostly used when you nitrate your cellulose, so it's not probably too effective to reuse the solution. Not sure about that though, I think we once again need someone more reliable to confirm this.

Edit: I bet you could try nitrating stuff with the solution that's left if you didn't nitrate too much cellulose, to a point they are not being nitrated anymore.

If you're looking for an atomic bomb animation (of what actually happens inside), check out http://www.howstuffworks.com . They have great demonstrations of a Teller-Ulam fusion bomb's functionality, and I think they had one about a U235-fission bomb. They're made with Flash, and copyrighted, so you should probably ask their permission if you're going to use them in a powerpoint display.

Actually, I think pure KNO3 is used as a fertilizer with no added stuff. Probably the biggest single concentration of KNO3 is in YT's garden shed.

Yep. That pretty much clears it for those who had no idea whatsoever. :> If someone wonders "wtf is a decay through radiation" see the radioactive isotope-thread.

I think it will work (especially with a pure hydrogen + pure oxygen mix, that burns like hell ). Just hydrogen ignited produces a not-so-observable flame in small quantities though.

Edit: And about that flame thrower thing, hydrogen burns pretty much all at once. And if there's not enough space for it to burn (narrow mouthed flask) it goes *boom*.

It's so sad that I cry myself to sleep every single night when I think about it.

As an exchange student to USA (United Nuclear) or UK (kno3.com)... I really must think about this.

Edit: Now that this happens to be a pyro-thread, I found barium perchlorate for sale; it would probably make a hell of a green flame (even better than chlorate?) but is it just too unstable to be used in fireworks?

I think he meant that it's stable when mixed with other elements, stable like noble gases are; highly inert and non-reactive. Of course, usually when talking about stability it's the matter of the discussed element being radioactive or not.

"The materials are much stronger as alloys, and the different alloys of aluminum are made for specific purposes. There is one alloy suitable for welding, one that can be bent without cracking and one that is meant to be used specifically in marine applications because it is corrosion resistant."

Yeah I knew that there are reasons to make alloys, it just makes me sad when people don't use the pure elements in all their glory of... purity.

It's sad how little use over 99% aluminum, titanium and such have these days. All alloys. Luckily, there are nice men in the world who run pyrotechnics companies.

Yep. I thought that the temperature might have something to do with it (as it usually does).