3 ms·
Ignition is an absolutely wonderful book, I send it to everyone I meet who thinks they want to be a scientist. It is also absolutely hilarious.
by hyperion2010 11y ago
Ignition is an absolutely wonderful book, I send it to everyone I meet who thinks they want to be a scientist. It is also absolutely hilarious.
- pjc50 11y agoIt's fantastic, an alternating mix of dry chemistry and hair-raising lab anecdotes. For those who haven't read it: in the post-war early rocket period, government chemists could tell from basic stochiochemistry what mixtures might make good rocket fuels. But their other properties had to be tested experimentally. Especially hypergolicity and detonation resistance. There's a long subthread about red fuming nitric acid, which would make a great oxidiser once people could find a way of stopping it eating through stainless steel tanks.