h a l f b a k e r yRecalculations place it at 0.4999.
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The electric toaster is an important component of civilization and
for the domestic environment, completely adequate. However,
there are situations where a fully equipped kitchen might not be
available. For example, it has long been established that the
British military cannot function without
constant access to tea. To
this end, main battle tanks, APCs etc. are equipped with boiling
vessels..<link> This means that the Challenger II may be
considered an armoured forward-operating field-deployable
kettle. What if this capability could be expanded to the provision
of toast under fire? It would be a huge force-multiplier and
potentially render the armoured and infantry units deployable for
months on end.
Imagine the scene, 8 infantry and an FV432 APC are providing
anti-tank support but somewhat pinned down. They've been there
45 minutes, and 12 cups of tea can only suppress a squaddies
hunger for so long, so, on the radio, a FDPTU is ordered up from
the rear.
In rush two extra squaddies carrying the FDPTU between them,
rushing in like a mortar team. The unit is in a similar form factor
to something like a 30mm canon ammo crate. In their spare
hands, a case of thermite cartridges and two loaves of thick
white sliced bread*. They slam it down, pop the lid and quickly
add in ~40 bread slices to the predetermined slots. In-between,
we have the thermite. These are disposable metal plates coated
in a stabilized thermite with a magnesium ignitor. The top is
closed and the unit fired by magnesium strips protruding through
the lid. The thermite cartridges between the bread slices burns
top to bottom in about 2 seconds. Quick as a flash, the team open
up the lid, pass off the slices to the buttering operative,
distribute to the squaddies and leave. The APC & infantry can
now continue fighting for at least an hour & 12 more cups of tea
before further sustenance is required.
I think 8th would have liked this one.
*Warburton's the ideal candidate.
Boiling Vessel
https://en.wikipedi...wiki/Boiling_vessel
[bs0u0155, Mar 03 2021]
TODAY'S CULINARY TOPIC IS: How to Light a Charcoal Fire
https://www.miamihe...rticle22804491.html
[Voice, Mar 03 2021]
Thermite popcorn
Thermite_20popcorn
[Loris, Mar 03 2021]
[link]
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It occurred to me this morning that we should have
attended the funeral of [8of7] with several hundred pounds
of thermite and an initiator. |
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That's a speedy cremation... |
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Indeed. For it maketh a pleasing smell for the lord. |
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Hmm... there are competitions for the "fastest lighting of a
barbecue". This idea makes me think (obviously) how fast
CAN you toast bread? Is the thermal conductivity of bread a
limiting factor? What about the e-m absorption spectrum? Is
IR the best way to go? Experiments must be done! |
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Presumably, there is a range from which a thermonuclear
explosion would perfectly toast bread. I assume that range is
quite a long range, certainly compared to the distances
normally used in toasters. So, you could arrange a huge
hemispherical array of bread and toast a few million slices at
once... the efficiency! You would have to remove the toast
relatively quickly however, before the blast wave at least. |
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But you'ld be using the blast wave to distribute the toast,
wouldn't you? Hence the cheerful promise, "Seconds after you
see the flash, the blast wave reaches you and, with that, your
toast." |
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//thermite and an initiator// |
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I think he'd have preferred the underground detonation of high
explosives, in honour of his hero Barnes Wallace's earthquake
bomb. |
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[n_s], a t-n blast *would* give you toast, but only on one
side. |
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// [n_s], a t-n blast *would* give you toast, but only on one
side.// |
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A second bomb on the opposite side would work, but you
couldn't get the right hemispherical arrangement, so I'd suggest
some sort of large wire rack where individual toasted
components were rotated after the first blast in anticipation of
the second thermonuclear toasting. I wonder if this was what
the Soviets were really going for with those rather unusual
Duga arrays? |
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Oh, those crazy Russians1 |
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The NATO reporting name "Steelyard" was replaced with
"Toastrack" in 1988. |
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//wire rack where individual toasted components were rotated// At last, a practical use for the blast wave! Need a lot of fine tuning to adjust the pivot point to get a clean 180° rotation of each slice though |
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This is not nearly as ridiculous as it seems. The U.S. army had to use pack mules relayed to man-mules to keep the frontline hydrated and fed in WW2 Sicily. |
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//Presumably, there is a range from which a thermonuclear
explosion would perfectly toast bread.// |
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Ah, I once calculated how much popcorn you could make
like that, for 8th. He was using thermite for it. |
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//how much popcorn you could make like that,// |
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So fission primary, fusion secondary and Corn tertiary?
The
expansion of corn is considerable, and it would be
immediate. What level of sound from 100 billion corn
kernels popping all at the same time? Then, you have an
awful lot of flammable carbon in the air. It could be made
to
behave like a fuel-air bomb. |
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Just seen the thermite popcorn idea, when I thought of
this I immediately thought it was an 8th-style idea. Turns
out it's actually an 8th idea... ha! |
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