Stupidity.... At radioactive levels

I didn't know people were stupid enough to conceive such an idea but low and behold leave it to the Russians. WARNING GRAPHIC STUPIDITY, you've been warned.
http://tinyurl.com/nr5hj96

Isn't a video like that supposed to start with, "Here hold my Vodka. "

Ted

Looked pretty clever to me. Safe? OK, no. But my experience has been that this is a sign of an inquisitive kid who figures stuff out. It's surprising that I and some of my friends survived childhood after some of the "experiments" we conducted. I dare say that is a common experience of many of our generation. Not so much any more as kids are such delicate snowflakes these days that they aren't allowed to even ride a bicycle without armoring up. Kids like the Russian are going to be the adventurous risk takers in our future.

I recently read "Rocket Boys" by Homer Hickam. It's about a West Virginia coal country kid who practiced "stupid" experiments with explosives. And became a NASA engineer. Risk and experimentation are good.

October Sky, a movie based on the book Rocket Boys, is a great film. Thank you for bringing up the book title as it is one that I have had on my must read list in the past and forgot about it.

After reflection I realize how fortunate I was to escape childhood with all my limbs and eyesight intact. At about 12 years of age my father's wallet grew weary of buying ammunition by the case and he bought a progressive reloading press for my brother and I. One of his friends bought us about a dozen 2kg kegs of various smokeless propellant he picked up as salvage from a sporting goods store that had fire damage. I would have to say less than 4kg went into reloading brass and the remainder into bombs of various construction. I wish my hearing had fared as well as other body parts.

First off, he is talking about microwave radiation. Not like plutonium type of radioactive radiation. That's the same kind of radiation put out by your VHF radio, your radar, or any other transmitter, just a different frequency.

Then, the only real risk was from being harmed by the exploding appliances. There was practically no risk from the microwave radiation, as he contained and directed it using the tin can. Yes, a tin can is able to very effectively direct microwaves. He wasn't pointing it at himself, or anyone else, that I saw, which definitely would have been dangerous.

I would not call this any kind of stupidity at all. Rather an interesting demonstration of how microwaves can be concentrated and directed, and the effects when they are.

When I was in the USAF I worked on radar systems on F-4's and some other aircraft. When we went out to "ops check" a radar the first thing we did was turn it on and hold an 18" florescent tube in front of the antenna. If the tube glowed brightly we had a good radar transmitter. If the tube didn't glow or glowed just a little we had a problem and then started the troubleshooting process.

It worked fine, and that was over 40 years ago and I'm still in good health. Imagine that!

I think microwave is below the threshold of ionizing radiation. It's the same stuff as gamma and xray, but at a longer wavelength. Gamma and xray can ionize, and that is where the damage comes from. Radio, microwave, IR, visible light, UV, xray, gamma. I think I have their respective places on the electromagnetic spectrum correct.. UV on up causes damage.

I happened to stumble across October Sky while channel surfing. That was such a deja vu moment I had to get the book! I liked it even better.

On long flights on the P3 I'd curl up under the radar cabinet as it was the warmest spot on the airplane. I think that is where the magnetron is located. I later managed to produce 2 kids and don't have brain cancer. Yet. So I suppose it was safe.