How to make a dry ice bomb

[giza]

This is simply awesome:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7598578066703715064

[Update: It has been pointed out to me that this is SO NOT SAFE it's not funny!]

Comments

[kellic.livejournal.com]

Would this even be illegal?

Damn that is cool. So what do we have here? The rapid freezing of the water and release of CO2 to make the bottle go boom?
I'm going to have to try this sometime. The only realy hazard you would be dealing with is the rapid acceleration of ice, which could be dangerous.

[giza.livejournal.com]

All I know is that tomorrow is July 4th and the neighborhood supermarket sells dry ice by the pound.

[sirfox.livejournal.com]

Dry ice is solid CO2. the warm water turns it back into a gas, and with the lid on the bottle, it's under higher and higher pressure, until something gives. Any freezing water is incidental. If that were to go off in your hand, you could well be left with a bloody stump. bits of plastic, ice, and dry ice go flying at quite a substantial clip, all capable of causing injury, and taking fingers/eyes etc with them.

The legality of this specific activity is hazy, but that is no problem whatsoever to an irate and creative cop. Public disturbance, Malicious mischeif, Noise violations, behavior likely to cause a breach of the peace, and depending on local laws, the creation of a dangerous device are all likely charges, with any number of other ones possible.

[giza.livejournal.com]

Hmm... putting the dry ice in a test tube, dropping that into the bottle, then tipping over the bottle from a safe distance away with pole and eye protection would probably be the safest thing to do.

[tlttlotd.livejournal.com]

No, it wouldn't. The shrapnel goes in all directions.

In my BBS days, a bunch of us threw one last party before we all went off to college. One of our number brought a large quantity of dry ice.

To cut to the chase, a younger member of my family was at ground zero for a dry ice bomb detonation, on the order of a two litre bottle. It threw him back a couple of feet and a large piece of plastic nearly went through his eye. His ball cap was a write off, which was a much preferred outcome.

These suckers can pack a whallop.

[murakozi.livejournal.com]

Even though it's not made with something like gunpowder, a dry ice bomb is still an explosive device. Odds are you'd at least end up at the police station even if you weren't formally charged.

Add in the danger of the things and they're just not worth messing with. The explosion resulting from the pressure buildup will shatter the bottle and the cap and send a bunch of sharp pieces flying off at a decent velocity. Spending the 4th of July at the hospital getting stitches or fingers reattached is just as bad whether it's due to an M80 or dry ice.

On top of that, picking up dry ice bare handed is not the wisest thing in the world to do either.

[tlttlotd.livejournal.com]

Yes, it sucks. A lot.

[kellic.livejournal.com]

PS..that is one stupid kid to be handling dry ice with your bare hands.

[duncandahusky.livejournal.com]

Note the followup comments on the BoingBoing article on this.

Essentially: THIS IS NOT SAFE!

[giza.livejournal.com]

Holy christ. I'll update the entry to reflect that.

4000 stitches... damn!

[gen-talon.livejournal.com]

Ya.
Its nifty..but scary and can be a bit dangerous. He was using a thin plastic bottle so it would explode with less pressure.
Think of putting stuff like that in a glass bottle or a gatorade bottle..yeek.

[giza.livejournal.com]

How about a propane tank? Could you imagine the pressure involved with THAT?

[murakozi.livejournal.com]

Propane tanks are designed to handle a good bit of pressure. I dunno that dry ice and water would generate enough pressure to cause one to explode. If it were an LP tank from a bbq grill, you'd also have to disable the relief valve built into it.

If you could get it to blow, as opposed to just bursting a seam, it'd be a pretty deadly thing.

[drzarron.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah. stupidity in action!

First.. NEVER handle dry ice with your bare hands!

Second.. seeing 'dry ice' will expand about 23 time as it expands, it can build up a lot of pressure quickly, thus the impressive BANG. Hearing damage is a real possibility. The greater danger using plastic bottles like this is shrapnel. The plasic gets stretches, making it VERY hard and when it tears apart hard bits of plastic with VERY sharp edges will fly in all direction. Someone could loose an eye.. and I'm not joking.

[firedhusky.livejournal.com]

Sometimes the smile produced by doing something stupid, weights more than the posibility of it going sour on you.

We all do stupid things (everyday) without even knowing, at least on this one, the big boom... will make you smile.

*wags*

[cheetor.livejournal.com]

Our Chemistry taught us how to do this at school
it was great fun, he bought us a big batch one day, and we made a time delay sustem, and berried the bottled in the bottle of the rubbish bins around the school
:D