Nitroglycerin Mystery Solved

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

Comments

Re:such a big deal?

[littlerubberfeet]

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.