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Strawberry Pop-Tart Blow-Torches (1994)
- Keegs 3y agoA post that predates CSS.
- robin_reala 3y agoBy a full 2 years and 4 months.
- curiouser2 3y agoWow the HTML is so nice. I was surprised at first bc there are no </p> tags but apparently it's valid! https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/p#technical_summary https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/p#...
- WaitWaitWha 3y agoI vaguely recall some movie where a jammed toaster with two pop-tarts, under the kitchen cabinets with other flammable items was used to create an accidental fire.
- h2odragon 3y agoOverlooked alternative energy resource
- EA-3167 3y agoI read that 1993 Dave Barry article when it came out, as a teen, and it made me fall in lifelong love with Dave Barry's work. It's such a blast from the past to see the references to it here.
- phendrenad2 3y agoFreakily, I was just thinking about this yesterday. Probably remembered it after watching Oppenheimer.
- robin_reala 3y agoAh, the old pop-tart solid rocket booster. Sugar is a good propellant (though you’ll need an oxidiser if you’re going far up). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-propellant_rocket#%22Candy%22_propellants https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-propellant_rocket#%22Can...
- EA-3167 3y agoI know sugar is hypergolic with Potassium Bromate, but I wonder if it's hypergolic with RFNA? That would be amazing... if stupidly dangerous.
- TeMPOraL 3y ago> RFNA Isn't this one of those substances that is hypergolic with everything around them, including air, water, and test engineers?
- EA-3167 3y agoIt's... a little spicy sure, and yeah maybe the acid burns and NO2 exposure are a bit lethal. But my god man, think of the specific impulse! ;)
- philipkglass 3y agoYou're thinking of chlorine trifluoride [1]. But red fuming nitric acid is also hypergolic with many fuels. [1] https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/sand-won-t-save-you-time https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/sand-won-t-save-yo...
- colechristensen 3y agoNot quite, it contains a little bit of water and will be fine sitting on a bench in an open beaker. But you should really avoid touching it or having it touch anything, particularly anything with carbon in it.
- hyperific 3y agoIn Andy Weir's The Martian one of the characters uses a mixture of sugar and liquid oxygen as an IED. Loads of energy in sugar. Glycerin is also quite energy dense. I used to do chemistry demos for high school chem classes and the potassium permanganate and glycerin demo was always a spectacle.
- bregma 3y agoWe teach our Scouts how Doritos make excellent firestarters. Of course, you only need one or two to star a fire, yet a large family-size sack is required for a typical Scouts meeting.
- dabluecaboose 3y agoCheez-its also work very well, and are easy to store in an altoids tin
- pimlottc 3y agoYeah, but it makes the mints taste terrible
- danavar 3y agoFritos too!
- hprotagonist 3y agopork rinds are also excellent.
- fortran77 3y agoIn girl scouts, they used tampons! See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNYJr20dBPw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNYJr20dBPw for example
- bemusedthrow75 3y agoOh man. I remember this from '94. What a trip down memory lane.
- EvanAnderson 3y agoTotally! Fun times. A friend and I used the "www.example.com/~username" webspace that came w/ our dialup accounts to make our own "site" with "experiments" inspired by this one around the same time. (Nothing involving fire, sadly.) We borrowed heavily from the tone. We even tried to make use of gratuitous initialisms, too.
- bemusedthrow75 3y agoThis is the bit that always made me laugh: At this point, the researchers also realized that the heat could inadvertently melt the adhesive cellophane and cause the flaming SPTs to suddenly eject from the toaster. Unfortunately, this did not occur.
- bell-cot 3y agoMeh. I've seen taller flames from a lone page of crumpled newsprint. If it's '90's Pyromania Day, then look for the old videos of charcoal BBQ's being fired up with LOX.
- jszymborski 3y ago> Meh. I've seen taller flames from a lone page of crumpled newsprint. Are you Jason Bourne? https://youtu.be/4yEFqDqTFPc https://youtu.be/4yEFqDqTFPc
- effingwewt 3y agoThose were magazines, newspaper (especially the stock used back in the day) is far more flammable.
- jszymborski 3y agoThey did test newsprint at one point in the YouTube video, and indeed it was the quickest to ignite.
- jszymborski 3y agoFrom the mind that brought us pmwiki!
- ck2 3y agoSince everything is no longer sugar but government subsidized high-fructose-corn-syrup does this even work anymore?
- _yb2s 3y agoYes- they have about the same energy content and will burn about the same. High fructose corn syrup is sugar, and is very similar to table sugar (sucrose). It's about 42% fructose and 58% glucose, while table sugar (sucrose) is a disaccharide, of fructose and glucose bonded together in a 1:1 ratio, so table sugar ends up having slightly more fructose and slightly less glucose.
- ortusdux 3y agoI think that demonstrations like this are great ways to teach kids healthy eating habits. My middle school health class included a joint day with a science teacher that left a lasting impression. Seeing the amount of energy contained in a single gummy bear put things into perspective! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txkRCIPSsjM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txkRCIPSsjM
- dang 3y agoRelated: Strawberry Pop-Tart Blow-Torches (1994) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31951308 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31951308 - July 2022 (51 comments) Strawberry Pop-Tart Blow-Torches (1994) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17745313 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17745313 - Aug 2018 (32 comments)
- pugworthy 3y agoScale this up and it would make a great Burning Man art piece for deep playa
- zahma 3y ago“At this point, the researchers also realized that the heat could inadvertently melt the adhesive cellophane and cause the flaming SPTs to suddenly eject from the toaster. Unfortunately, this did not occur.” That made me laugh out loud. This research paper could make for a pretty good intro to scientific writing example for any of your 101s.
- nlunbeck 3y agoYes, I was also pretty moved by *Figure 6: Toaster Disposal* -- I love when research papers go 200% on context
- Kaibeezy 3y agoPre-2014 nitrocellulose ping pong balls… of fire!
- plorg 3y agoMy college rock band had a silly tradition of burning a nitrocellulose pick as a sacrifice to the rock gods before a show. Ping Pong balls sound like even more fun!
- baryphonic 3y agoI miss this era of the Web. Thanks for the enjoyable walk down memory lane!
- timekiller 3y agoI destroyed 2 toaster ovens with pop tarts when I was 5. I would turn on the toaster and forget about it watching cartoons. I can confirm they burn very well.
- Levitating 3y agoThis happened twice? In the span of a year?! Did your house not burn down?
- timekiller 3y agoNo, it didn’t burn down. A cabinet had to be replaced. I was left to my own vices a lot. I ended up learning a lot of proper firefighting protocols at a young age.
- kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 3y agoNo, the countertops were made from asbestos
- timekiller 3y agoLol
- Nevermark 3y agoOne unfrosted Strawberry Pop-Tart has 190 (nutritional) calories [0], 4,184 joules, to burn. [0] https://smartlabel.kelloggs.com/Product/Index/00038000222511 https://smartlabel.kelloggs.com/Product/Index/00038000222511
- demondemidi 3y agoI remember when this was the internet and it was fun and new and dorky and surfed with Mosaic.
- 1letterunixname 3y agoIt's too bad we can't run on LNG or H2 because of the improved energy / mass densities. 4 kcal/g: Carbs and protein 7: Ethanol 9: Fats and lipids 11: Gasoline 13: LNG 34: H2 * * Hydrogen storage and distribution infrastructure is an exercise for the reader.
- WillAdams 3y agoWe do, sort of, just not very efficiently --- we burn up to 10 calories of petro-chemical energy in our industrial farming practices to get 1 calorie of food energy.
- bityard 3y agoPages like this used to _be_ the world-wide web. Or most of it, anyway. I don't mean the (lack of) page style, I mean the writing. The irreverency of the subject matter. People shared whatever they thought was interesting, without regard to upvotes, likes, number of subscribers, and so on. I miss that a bit. (Also, it doesn't really get any more mid-90's than a tip of the hat toward Dave Barry...)
- aceazzameen 3y agoOne could argue that social media has taken its place. Although, the format makes it bite size and within a sea of algorithmic trash.
- jrockway 3y agoIn 1994 we were seeing this all for the first time. Everyone had intrusive thoughts like "how big can I make a pop tart fire", but very few had the ability to make digital photographs and upload it to the Internet for all to see. Today, everyone has the ability to upload it to the Internet for all to see, so someone probably already had your intrusive thought and already made $10,000 off of it.
- notso411 3y ago[dead]
- colechristensen 3y agoThe old Internet had far far less, er "social validation" feedback. And if it did it was more like a person reaching out to write you a letter.
- cnity 3y agoIt also had a high (relatively) barrier to entry, technically speaking. This limited contributors on the internet to a specific cohort of curious-minded individuals.
- shever73 3y agoEvery time this pops up on HN, I’m reminded of the XKCD comic “Ten thousand”[0] Strawberry Pop-Tart Blow Torches was one of the first websites I looked at when I got connected to the Internet back in late ‘94. It makes me very happy to know that the site is still there and people are still finding it for the first time. Edit: forgot the footnote!! [0] https://xkcd.com/1053/ https://xkcd.com/1053/
- green-salt 3y agoI always smile whenever I read about SPT pyrotechnics.
- hifikuno 3y agoThis reminds me of the one time I microwaved a Pop-Tart at school. I was grade 4 and young me thought that a Pop-Tart on 30 seconds taste great, a Pop-Tart on 3 minutes would taste amazing! When I opened up the door I could see a small volcano had formed in the middle of my Pop-Tart and smoke was pouring out of the middle. Embarrassed me slammed the door shut and ran back to my seat and watched in horror as the whole lunch room started talking excitedly. Also the dread I felt when the teachers asked who did it and in unison everyone turned and pointed at me. I didn't get in trouble, but I didn't microwave Pop-Tarts again. All these years later it is a great story about young stupid me!
- zharknado 3y agoI was kinda hoping the Pop-Tarts themselves would be blowtorches. Unrealistic? Perhaps. But I set you this challenge: make a pastry of the correct shape and size with fruity filling of viscosity and reactivity such that, when ignited, it produces a steady flame and/or propels itself into the air.
- cooper_ganglia 3y ago"Remember kids, the only difference between screwing around and science is writing it down!" -Adam Savage
- Prcmaker 3y agoReminds of the thermal lance made of bacon, a compressed bacon slug, a coaxial feed of oxygen, all ignited with oxy-acetylene . The lance is one of the favourite tools I've ever gotten to use, it's simplicity is amazing, and capability surprising.
- nicolas_t 3y agoFrom my accidental experimentation in the 90s (our toaster would occasionally not pop the toast out) , I can confirm that the frosted strawberry pop tart also create a nice flame. Given the higher amount of sugar and calories, I guess they'd have more fuel to burn.
- codeulike 3y agoI remember this from 1994, reading it in the uni computer lab. These was a meme at the time, before the word meme came about. Its interesting that there were photos, that was quite unusual for the time. Notice that they are in .gif format. Digital cameras were quite rare back then, and the resolution on the photos looks quite fine so I'm thinking these are probably film-photos that were developed and then scanned on a scanner.
- mrguyorama 3y ago>These was a meme at the time, before the word meme came about It wasn't used regularly on the internet until into the 2000s, but the word "meme" was coined by Dawkins in 1976, as a direct analog to biological "genes"