> This is a similar reaction to photosynthesis in plants, which produces glucose instead of rocket fuel.
This is silly, but also begs the sillier question why we aren't bioengineering plants to produce rocket fuel
replies(13):
This is silly, but also begs the sillier question why we aren't bioengineering plants to produce rocket fuel
Alternatively, you can break it down into ethanol, which has been used as liquid rocket fuel since at least the first half of the '40s.
Sort of early 'RoundUp' with high contents of Sodium chlorate combined with powdered sugar. Very dangerous! But fun :-)
Even more fun, but potentially fatal very fast would be Potassium chlorate.
But I've been cautious, and limited myself to selfmade blackpowder mostly, during the times one 'did that' as young boys with toys.
Still have all my fingers, no burn scars, full eyesight & hearing, though. Phew! :-)
Btw, when I did this the internet didn't exist, 1977 to 1980, I think. It was in schoolbooks for chemistry, not chlorate stuff, but blackpowder at least. I also went into university libraries for more advanced stuff, after understanding teachers gave hints, and warnings, about not doing anything which one doesn't really understand. Not limited to explosives. Toxicity, fumes, pH, and so on.
We've been really dumbed down. No more interesting experimental kits ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemistry_set ) . No more availability of the ingredients. I could walk into a drug store and get that stuff for chump change, there. Not needing to produce finest charcoal myself. Or sulfur. Potassium nitrate. Flashbulbs and a 9V-block and some wires for electrical ignition!1!!
Bang! Whee!
edit: Thinking about it I can't shake the feeling that it did not make us safer. Though that may depend on the country.
Anyway, one does hear and read about much more loud booms caused by reckless use of smuggled illegal fireworks year round. Be it just for fun, ripping up trashcans, recycling containers, shopping windows, ATMs...
Or the really 'good stuff' (military) smuggled in from afar.
Or, well... just guns?