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I started reading Ignition! and it is a hoot. I really get the impression that the rocket fuel scientists fixated, not because of personal issues (though hilari
by HCIdivision17 10y ago
I started reading Ignition! and it is a hoot. I really get the impression that the rocket fuel scientists fixated, not because of personal issues (though hilarity ensues there), but because the search space is damn large (at least while still discovering how fuels interacted). Or worse, it just takes a damn long time to even properly test. So when you found something promising, you really dug into it.
- sevensor 10y agoI loved the section on mercaptans -- they persisted way longer than they needed to on experiments with some of the worst smelling chemicals anywhere.
- nkurz 10y agoYes, it's a fantastic book. Not necessarily a good role model for future work, but it perfectly captures the spirit of rocket science at the time: http://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/ignition.pdf http://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/ignition.pdf Everyone who grew up idolizing rocket scientists should read it. If you have problems with missing pages or broken figures, try a different PDF viewer. The PDF has something odd about it that confuses some in-browser viewers.