Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site cvl.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!whuxl!whuxlm!harpo!decvax!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!umcp-cs!cvl!liang
From: liang@cvl.UUCP (Eli Liang)
Newsgroups: net.rec
Subject: Re: Re: Blowing things up
Message-ID: <216@cvl.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 26-Mar-85 18:22:22 EST
Article-I.D.: cvl.216
Posted: Tue Mar 26 18:22:22 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 28-Mar-85 02:50:32 EST
References: <579@unmvax.UUCP> <101600001@hplabs.UUCP> <339@ihu1m.UUCP> <180@sdcc13.UUCP>
Organization: Computer Vision Lab, U. of Maryland, College Park
Lines: 41

> Since it didn't pour too well, I gave a minute tap with my little
> finger.  Needless to say, It went off (Since none of the other methods I
> tried ever worked, I had fewer precautions then necessary).  The little
> pieces of the plastic bottle missed me, however, my face was completely
> black.  I thought I had gone blind until I took my glasses off.  This
> gave me the appearance of something out of Gilligan's Island.  My
> brother ran out and while I was sitting there in a daze, he started
> laughing (some brother huh?).  Anyway, It took a while to clean my face
> off, and even then there were little bits of crystals embedded that took
> a week to get rid of.  The moral is:  never expirement by yourselves
> without knowing what will happen (I thought it was supposed to give
> little pops).  Had I made a little more, I suppose my brother would have
> had to find a convenient story to tell my parent's.
> 
> Oh well, just had to say something....
> 
>   Darin Johnson.

a couple months ago, we whipped up a "significant" batch of the stuff (enough
to take out a house I'd imagine) and put it in a cyclohexane solution.
Unfortunately, we had second thoughts about that an hour or two later because
we started worrying that it might be the actual -OH ions that keep the
stuff stable (present in larger quantities in H2O than C6H12!) and had a
"horrible" few moments with the "defusing".  Does anyone out there know for
a fact whether this is true or not?  If NI3 is stable in a non -OH bearing
solution like cyclohexane, that would be wonderful since it decomposes in
most polar liquids.  Cyclohexane has many properties which would make it the
perfect solvent for NI3.  Its nonpolar, low density, low boiling point,
etc...

speaking of NI3 experiments, we discovered a while back how annoying it was
to get even the tiniest amounts on the soles of your shoes... ouch!

-eli
-- 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eli Liang  ---
        University of Maryland Computer Vision Lab, (301) 454-4526
        ARPA: liang@cvl, liang@lemuria, eli@mit-mc, eli@mit-prep
        CSNET: liang@cvl  UUCP: {seismo,allegra,brl-bmd}!umcp-cs!cvl!liang