so tell them about the dangers. its "people like you" who keep rocketry so tightly regulated though for the large part it is safer than filling your car up at a crowded service station. say this person listened to your advice "don't do rocketry, you will die and btw you and your teacher are just so dumb for even thinking about doing what the other 1800(?) people on this list do" then went on to become a regulatory official. based on what this person now "knows" they will clamp down on rocketry even harder. this is admittedly a far fetched possibility but one of the goals of this group and many others is to encourage interest in rocketry and to ensure that it is practised safely. if you effectively call people dumb then its likely they will just go "well screw you too" and go off and do it by them selves. this is a bad thing. that is what leads to people getting blown up. Showing an interest never hurt anybody (well with the possible exception of some social and political leaders), and youthful enthusiasm is a wonderful thing, provided that it is encouraged in the right direction with somebody to keep an eye on what's going on. As for your pyrotechnic compositions being safer than liquids in large part that's just daft. You mix that stuff up 20 centimetres from your face and one spark or some odd intense friction and you no longer poses said face or hands etc. You look at "professional" fireworks manufactures how many of them are missing fingers or worse. If its done properly the worst you can get with (non toxic) liquids is cold burn.
To the original poster, see if you can get your teacher to join the list or at least speak to some of the people on here, there are a fair few people who would like to help you achieve your goal and to do it safely. (though as John Carmack pointed out list policy is not to give out plans or recipes). The "non toxic" comment above just raised a good point. For your first rocket its best to stay away from stuff that can hurt you just by contact. (80% peroxide is pretty nasty stuff) that would pretty much be my only really major concern with a person going from nothing to making liquids without a professional background in engineering or similar. ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, January 11, 2003 4:37 PM Subject: Re: [ERPS] Help > I also played with various pyrotechnic mixes in high school, and they > are infinitely safer than a liquid rocket engine. Frankly, the fact that > the 'teacher' could not supply this information means that the 'teacher' > doesn't understand the dangers involved. I'd rather be accused of being > condescending than to learn about people being hurt or killed on the > nightly news. I'm certainly glad that no one encouraged me to try this > in high school. > > Dan > > In a message dated 1/10/3 10:25:26 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > > << That is unnecessarily condescending, and I don't think the air of > "knowledge to dangerous for normal people" does anyone any good. I will > respect the wishes of ERPS and not post explicit answers, but I don't > really agree. (I haven't been super-explicit, but you can find answers to > most of your questions of you read through the last couple years of updates > at www.armadilloaerospace.com) > > My ninth grade science teacher let me make thermite and smoke bombs. >> > > _______________________________________________ > ERPS-list mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://lists.erps.org/mailman/listinfo/erps-list _______________________________________________ ERPS-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.erps.org/mailman/listinfo/erps-list
