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experimental Manhattan Project explosion

[DHT]Osiris

Lifer
Dec 15, 2015
17,382
16,662
146
High pressure explosions you say?
Missing steel bore cap[edit]
In 1956, Dr Robert Brownlee, from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, was asked to examine whether nuclear detonations could be conducted underground. The first subterranean test was the nuclear device known as Pascal A, which was lowered down a 500 ft (150 m) borehole. However, the detonated yield turned out to be 50,000 times greater than anticipated creating a jet of fire that shot hundreds of feet into the sky.[8] During the Pascal-B nuclear test, a 900-kilogram (2,000 lb) steel plate cap (a piece of armor plate) was welded over the borehole to contain the nuclear blast even though Brownlee predicted it would not work.[8] When Pascal-B was detonated, the blast went straight up the test shaft, launching the cap into the atmosphere at a speed of more than 66 km/s (41 mi/s; 240,000 km/h; 150,000 mph). The plate was never found.[9] Scientists believe compression heating caused the cap to vaporize as it sped through the atmosphere.[8] A high-speed camera, which took one frame per millisecond, was focused on the borehole because studying the velocity of the plate was deemed scientifically interesting.[8] After the detonation, the plate appeared in only one frame, but this was enough to make an estimation of its speed. Dr. Brownlee joked the best estimate of the cover's speed from the photographic evidence was it was "going like a bat!"[9][10] Brownlee estimated that the explosion, combined with the specific design of the shaft, could accelerate the plate to approximately six times Earth's escape velocity.[9] In 2015 Dr. Brownlee said, "I have no idea what happened to the cap, but I always assumed that it was probably vaporized before it went into space."[11]
 
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brianmanahan

Lifer
Sep 2, 2006
24,627
6,011
136
edited for maybe a little more accuracy because it needs it....

hey i was within a few orders of magnitude

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Scarpozzi

Lifer
Jun 13, 2000
26,392
1,780
126
I'm confused by the image vs the story. Are they suggesting the food processor was actually the mortar and pestle?

Was it actually a mortar that exploded and killed him??
 

brainhulk

Diamond Member
Sep 14, 2007
9,376
454
126
I'm confused by the image vs the story. Are they suggesting the food processor was actually the mortar and pestle?

Was it actually a mortar that exploded and killed him??

I bet they tried to instant pot the avocados, tomatoes, onions, cilantro, and lime juice.

The smashing together of guacamolecules in the high heat and pressure resulted in a tex-mex fusion reaction.