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Nitroglycerin Mystery Solved

Posted by michael on from the funny-as-a-heart-attack dept.

Amon Hobbes writes "It seems that some scientists at Duke University have unravelled the mysteries of How Nitroglycerin works [the heart medication]."

13 of 25 comments (clear)

  1. such a big deal? by tps12 · · Score: 1

    Chemical potential energy is transformed into heat energy. You break some bonds, you're gonna get some energy out of it. Seems pretty straightforward to me.

    Whether you use that to make bombs or cure heart disease, I don't care, the principle is the same.

    Hey, could this be used in laptop batteries? How sweet would it be to have a TNT-powered Crusoe Linux box?

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    1. Re:such a big deal? by david+duncan+scott · · Score: 3, Funny

      So if I experience chest pains, I should swallow a grenade? Seems like that might work once...

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    2. Re:such a big deal? by Raskolnk · · Score: 1, Troll

      Aren't you a smarty! That high-school chemistry class really clued you in didn't it. Read the article dumbass, you don't understand what the 'mystery' is.

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    3. Re:such a big deal? by alienmole · · Score: 1

      Better be careful, with comprehension skills like yours, you're ripe for being trolled...

    4. Re:such a big deal? by Governerd · · Score: 3, Informative

      No. Only nitroglycerine in its pure form is explosive. In fact, pure nitro is never even used in grenades because it is so very unstable. A nitroglycerine grenade would probably never make it out of the factory, exploding sometime during the assembly process. Dynamite is essentially nitro in an inert matrix -- even sugar and clay were tried during the early days. However, when given in very small doses and rendered non-explosive by dilution with chemically inert materials, it can do really good things for heart patients.

    5. Re:such a big deal? by littlerubberfeet · · Score: 4, Informative

      Now I must disagree. Nitroglycerine is made by combining Nitric acid with glycerin, very simply put. The second step to the process is filtering all the excess Nitrc acid out of the 'soup' Now why is this important? Because nitric acid makes Nitroglycerine unstable. Now, pure nitroglycerine is MUCH MUCH more stable then it is with impurities. There is actually an equation for the temperature of spontanious combustion based on the amount of Nitric acid left in the mixture.

      Now, making a grenade out of nitroglycerin is easy, you just do the same thing you do with TNT and dynamite. You mix the Nitro with fine-powder sawdust, and it holds it in an easly managable paste.

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  2. Uhhh.... by espresso_now · · Score: 1

    Cool?

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  3. Re:science "mysteries": a slashdot myth by Lars+T. · · Score: 2

    Read this and be quiet when grown-ups talk.

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  4. I already knew how it worked by Cyno01 · · Score: 1

    i've known for several years how nitroglycerin works, it goes boom real good :D

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  5. Sorry by Amon+Hobbes · · Score: 1

    I was just posting stuff I thought was in the interest of science. Didn't want to be a choad about things.

  6. OK, but who was the first guy to try it??? by sphealey · · Score: 2
    Who was the first person to get the bright idea to try EATING nitroglycerin? Wouldn't that seem a bit, well, dangerous to you?

    sPh

    1. Re:OK, but who was the first guy to try it??? by Captoo · · Score: 1

      I've been told that you don't actually need to eat it to experience the effects. Simply getting enough of it on your bare skin is supposed to be enough to cause an accelerated heart rate. Does anybody out there know if this is true? Maybe it was this effect that convinced people to start putting it in pills.

    2. Re:OK, but who was the first guy to try it??? by Captoo · · Score: 1

      Then again, if I got a lot of it on my skin, I'd probably have an increased heart rate simply because I'd be afraid of exploding! :)