Ok before you get your clittys all leaking and call the mods read the post. I am not asking for anything that could happen or be done IRL.I am writing a story, and there is a scene where the characters have to try and jury rig some sort of explosive out of a desperate attempt to stall a enemy.The thing is this is set in a place where they only have a few minutes and very limited materials, and I wanted to know if the "solution" I came up with would even work at all or if it would just be a total nothingburger. It sounds like it should work but I have no idea.This is happening on a spaceship carrying materials for a colony world. The have some fertilizers on board that they decide to use, but there is no time to try and make ANFO and no fuel oil aboard (maybe cooking oil or machine oil, but again no time to go around mixing) and chances are the fertilizer won't even be Ammonium Nitrate.So they get the fertilizer and put it next to the fuel line that is feeds the engine and break it. If the ship had liquid oxygen I am pretty sure it would be a easy way to turn any bag of fertilizer into a bomb but in this case they only have liquid hydrogen. Several liters of liquid H2 to fall onto the bags and soak them. Then they set it off with a electrical spark. My idea is that if the fertilizer is a strong oxidizer then the hydrogen can be ignited using it Would this work at all? Doesn't even need to really be a explosion, just a very strong fire would already work in the context of the story. Would the massive drop in temperature from the liquid hydrogen keep it from working or slowing it down too much to work? Or would it just not work at all regardless due to the chemistry of it all not melding well for solid oxidizer and liquid H2? Of the common fertilizers would Amonium Nitrate be the best for such a scenario or would there be something better like Potassium Nitrate?Picture unrelated
If they have access to liquefied gases they can make a much simpler mechanical explosive.
>>16943583You mean something like filling a pressure vessel with the liquid H2 and just leaving it on a hot spot to explode? I think that could work but might be hard to time. Plus I am not use if they could have such vessels that would work for a good sized explosion like the story asks for.A space suit for example would fail way before it got pressurized enough to really go hard. Most other containers around are mostly just rated for vaccum and so not really up to the multiple atmospheres to really get good damage going. Hmmm. It is an idea tho.
>>16943564Just remember to pay for your rental truck in cash or a stolen credit card. That’s how they got McVeigh.
