Comments by "Vikki McDonough" (@vikkimcdonough6153) on "Cordite and Poudre B - Why things start exploding at just the wrong time" video.

  1. 8:03 - Also, if the projectile leaves the barrel before the propellant's finished burning, you get a lot more muzzle flash.
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  2. 7:08 - High explosives can be used to propel things (for instance, in the 1960s, NASA was doing work on Project Orion, a project to propel spacecraft by setting off nuclear bombs behind them, and, although the project was ultimately cancelled, they ran a number of successful small-scale tests using a scale model of the spacecraft design propelled by small charges of dynamite) - just not with a conventional gun (unless you make it ridiculously thick and heavy and sturdy around the breech where the detonation's going to happen). Not saying you're wrong (because you're right), just felt like clarifying a bit.
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  3.  @timengineman2nd714  Nitrous oxide is N2O (which really wants to give up that oxygen atom to become good old N2, hence its usefulness as an oxidizer), not N2O2 (which, to the best of my knowledge, doesn't exist except at deeply-cryogenic temperatures).
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  4. And nitrogen-containing compounds that don't have a tendency to explode tend to a.) only contain a fairly-small percentage of nitrogen, b.) have the nitrogen mainly or entirely bonded to carbon or hydrogen, which are things nitrogen is relatively happy to hang out with, and c.) not contain any preexisting nitrogen-nitrogen bonds, since a pair of nitrogens bonded to each other have a strong tendency to want to become a pair of nitrogens bonded only to each other.
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  5. Could the high proportion of magazine explosions occurring in port simply be a selection artifact? After all, while a large proportion of magazine explosions occurred while in port, warships spend most of their time in port when not actively engaged in combat.
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  6. 31:28 - Even the Japanese got in on the act there (with Kawachi going boom at anchor in the First World War and Mutsu in the Second).
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  7. 1. Why did the German Hilfskreuzers with steam turbines have so much more problems with their engines (with the notable exception of the little thunder god that could) than those that used diesel engines? I was under the impression that marine diesels were still considerably less reliable than steam turbines all the way through the WWII period (hence the use of steam rather than diesel on essentially all capital ships of this era, although a number of navies had looked at, and rejected, the idea of building diesel-engined battleships). 2. Why did Russia sent their Baltic fleet to the Far East in 1905 when their Black Sea fleet was in much better shape (and wouldn't've had to sail as far)? 2 1/2. Once they had sent the Second Pacific Squadron, neé Baltic fleet, why did they then reinforce them with the Sink-By-Themselves Squadron rather than (as Admiral Rozhestvensky had recommended) some of the almost-new South American cruisers flooding the market at the time? 3. You've often said that a battleship needs at least four main guns for accurate salvo fire. Why? Doesn't accuracy depend on the quality of the guns and rangefinders, not on the sheer number of guns? 4. How does a torpedo explosion go far enough into a capital ship's hull to detonate the main magazines, like with SMS Pommern in the First World War or USS Wasp in the Second? It's easy to see how a torpedo could be fatal to a capital ship, by blowing open more watertight compartments than the ship can tolerate being flooded at once or severing enough structural elements of the hull to catastrophically reduce its structural integrity, but it seems, at first glance, that, given how deeply capital-ship magazines are generally buried in the hull, the explosion would have to rip and blast through nearly to the centerline of the ship to trigger a main-magazine explosion. Admittedly, this may well explain why it's so rare for a torpedo hit on a capital ship to directly touch off the main magazines, but I'm still having trouble conceiving how it's possible at all! 5. What would've happened in the rest of the Pacific War if Shōkaku had foundered on her way back from the Coral Sea (as she almost did historically, due to the combination of her severe battle damage and heavy seas en route)?
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