The English language needs a word for “awesome and dangerous simultaneously”.
We recently ran into the strange pastime of anvil shooting on YouTube (where else?). The idea is that you pack about a pound (!) of black powder between two anvils and light it up. The powder explodes, and the top anvil gets shot into the air. Hilarity ensues, if everyone’s far enough away and wearing hearing protection.
It’s probably traditional to fire anvils in place of cannons on festive occasions. The modern, competitive version of the pastime is relatively new, and is scored both on how high the anvil flies, and on how close to the launching pad the anvil lands when it hits the ground. It looks like you make everything very level, pack the powder as evenly as possible, and hope for the best.
Now before you go about doing something silly like this, you should know that it can also go wrong (YouTube, naturally) in any number of ways. Smashing black powder between anvils is asking for early detonation. And even if you’re relatively experienced with such things you can still get hurt, as happened during the 2011 US National Anvil Shooting competition. Apparently the man in question lost a thumb to the hobby. Finally, unless you’re taking heroic precautions like X-raying your anvil, you can’t be sure that the anvil won’t break apart.
So we’re not recommending that you try this at all. Instead, stare on in awe at the crazies on YouTube who are taking the risks for you. (Note the use of electric fuses in the last video, which is probably a heck of a lot safer than black-powder fuses. We still don’t recommend it.)
Awesome
There is a word for this kind of thing, it is ‘Murica
Why do people think that only Americans are stupid enough to do dumb things? Just because we do it the most, the loudest, and the proudest doesn’t mean we’re the only ones doing stupid things. :D
Generally in my experience the largest portion of youtube videos of people doing dangerous yet awesome things like this seem to come from eastern europe. I seem to vaguely recall reading they even have a special word for it.
America definitely has the market cornered on videos of people firing guns incorrectly and injuring themselves though.
I seem to vaguely recall reading they even have a special word for it.
Well, that word should be adopted by English!
Well look at the megabot vs kuratas hype. Sure, american’s built a giant super battle mech. But the Japanese did it first.
Where’s the hack?
Who cares? Though this is dangerous, it’s still fun to watch (from a very safe distance!).
Besides, this is a traditional (retrotacular) hack in order to make your common, garden-variety anvil airborne.
Hack (v)
The use of equipment or technology in a manner different to the object’s original purpose, usually to achieve added or different functionality
Hack (n)
The object of a hack
The flying anvil isn’t used for any purpose. The flight itself is the purpose. Using gunpowder to blow things up isn’t a hack. That’s what gunpowder is meant for.
So where’s the hack? Are we to assume that throwing anything that is not usually meant to be airborne is now a “hack”?
If you use gunpowder to do it, I’ll vote yes.
This makes little sense and I’m not a girl.
Cant tell if trolling or serious with this question but I’ll bite. You dont have to stretch the definition of “hack” very far – nay if at all – to see that normally you wouldn’t see an anvil go flying through the air like that. This is clearly taking an object and making it do something well outside its normal operations. If your having trouble with the logic the hack is this: Anvils have been converted to projectile AND launch platform. Last I knew my brothers blacksmithing anvil wasn’t itching to go skyward. Not a very hard hack but people are doing things you normally wouldn’t do with one.
I first perceived this article like a bit of a celebration of “blowing shit up for the heck of it” avoiding any mental stretch. Sort of like Brainiac.
But fair enough, with your explanation I have to agree that this does qualify as a hack.
Thank you for your comment :>
+[̲̅$̲̅(̲̅ιοο̲̅)̲̅$̲̅] Thank you! well put.
Actually, you do have to stretch it too far to include this one as a hack.
Suppose for example, if we place an anvil on a seesaw and jump on it to toss it in the air, is that a hack?
In order to really qualify as a hack, the thing in question must accomplish some task. Using an anvil as a doorstop or a counterweight is a hack. Using an anvil as a boat anchor is a hack. Using an anvil as a wrecking ball is a hack. The common denominator is that the anvil is being used in an unconventional way to accomplish something else.
Just throwing things in the air – with explosives or otherwise – isn’t a hack. First, the use of gunpowder isn’t a hack because that’s what gunpowder does – blow things up. Secondly, accepting that this IS a hack, we would have to concede that tossing anything – such as throwing your shoe in the air – is a hack, and that just dilutes the meaning of “a hack” to nothingness.
Okay, it can be used as an artillery shell. Hack achieved!
“Suppose for example, if we place an anvil on a seesaw and jump on it to toss it in the air, is that a hack?”
You figure out how to make it go that high by just jumping on a seesaw, and I’ll vote yes again.
“normally you wouldn’t see an anvil go flying through the air like that”
There’s plenty of things that normally don’t happen but which are perfectly possible, yet them being uncommon doesn’t make them hacks. Otherwise we would have to call every odd or peculiar event “a hack” and that again would completely change the meaning of the word.
Unfortunately, today simple party tricks like balancing a pair of forks on top of a nail is getting called a “physics hack”, as if you somehow hacked the force of gravity to behave in a different way instead of just placing the center of mass below the fulcrum of the system.
You’re the hack. Come up with some better material.
Both.
Of course it’s awesome.
There are, I dare say, very few things that are both “safe” and “AWESOME.”
And for people who are looking for a hack, YOU BE THE HACKER. Hack up a way to make this so repeatable that it is both safe AND awesome. Add it to the short list.
And it’s not really strictly a U.S. (‘murica) sort of thing.
For instance, Hammer Fireworks in Mexico. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVCQElI5T-A
Holy crap. Where (or when) did that hammer land?
Indeed two valid questions. Also, a baseball cap and handkerchief does not seem like much protection.
“Hammer Fireworks” … possibly more dangerous territory even than “Carbide Canon” …. Love it :~)
Why? Because blowing things up, noise, nonsense and danger are fun!
I’m all for launching stuff. If done safely. I think that an electric match and more distance would both be appropriate here.
Awesome though.
Now it surely looks like a bomb!
No Officer – it’s just a clock – goes off at midday every day.
OK, so we wait until the roadrunner is running past, blow up the anvil, and it will land right on the roadrunner…
Meep meep.
Given how Wile E. Coyote’s attempts at dinner are always foiled by Murphy’s Law I would suggest either being at least 100 meters away or have another Looney Tunes character like Daffy Duck nearby to take one for the team.
A duck in a desert? That is stretching my credulity. B^)
Wow, and people say my sport (IPSC action pistol competition) is dangerous! But hey, to each his own. I can see how this would be a lot of fun, and there’s a lot you can learn about chemistry and physics from this while having fun.
Some people think that just looking at something vaguely shaped like a gun is dangerous. Kudos for your competitive shooting.
Diabetic yard duty/sec guard angry at kid for enjoying his pop tart. I weep for all.
We need to ban Florida because it looks like a gun!
So what does one do to achieve the title world champion? I could understand it if it were set at 45 and fired a distance but I can’t see height being measured so what is?
After watching a few amusing videos on YouTube, it becomes apparent that they compete for both height and landing as close as possible to the bottom anvil. Plus it’s just an excuse for a fun day out blowing stuff up while the kids try to dig the anvils out once they land :P If it exists, someone will make a competitive sport out of it…
Since the anvil is fairly dense and the velocities involved are not that high, air resistance can be ignored and you can simply measure the time it takes from launch to “landing”…the more time it spends in the air obviously means it reached a higher altitude ;-)
Yup…in this case I calculated a maximum altitude of about 52 meters, given about a 6.5 second hang time.
Casual sexism apparently.
This is where we come in, we design/build an impact resistant board with accelerometer, GPS, and barometric pressure sensors (yes, I know it could be done with a couple of 555’s and 3 passive components) to measure the height the anvil acheives.
The English language needs a word for “awesome and dangerous simultaneously”.
The word you’re looking for is ‘awesome’. And whoever realized that anvils should fly is a genius.
Nah, the word is awesomfu-kmazing!
I think the word you’re looking for is “Chuck Norris”. ;)
Stupid is universal and not limited to one country.
But sometimes stupid transcends itself and becomes something more. Something awesome.
THAT’s when it becomes ‘Murica.
Full disclosure we used to do anvil firing, which is the proper term for this activity during our HAM radio activities. We also had a private target shooting range at the same location.
This is a stretch but there is a bit of hacking going on here. The lower anvil must have a recess milled into it. The shape and size of this pocket greatly effects how high the other anvil goes. Additionally you need to experiment with gasket material and the amount of powder used. I know it’s a stretch but it defiantly used to scratch the same part of the brain that is used in traditional hacking.
As you were… BTW other countries are into this sort of thing too.
Wait, anvil-firing, target shooting with guns, and amateur radio in the same location? I think that nexus of awesomeness may be of sufficient magnitude to cause a rip in the space-time continuum!
Love it.
Stopwatch and a calculator says that this anvil ended at apex at about 50.6m (166ft).
Some HP calculators include a stopwatch as well as a gravity function. B^)
There’s always a way for Darwin to find a way into every human activity. If its not this that takes them out
something else will. i.e. Microwave oven xfmrs, texting while driving etc.:
Better video here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_x1eG4d8Bk
Personally I can’t see the point in doing it more than once unless you are making money from entertaining hill-billies.
“Personally I can’t see the point in doing it more than once unless you are making money from entertaining hill-billies.”
Are you referring to “the joy of sex” or the anvil firing?
It could be worse than anvils. Something I would prefer to stay at least some 500 meters (~1500 feet) away from (if keeping an eye on it) is barrel launching:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bczn_1S8SYo
On second though, maybe I should not have posted that. Some fool might get hurt.
I felt sorry for the guys barrels that just fizzled.
Acetylene?
http://www.instructables.com/id/Oxy-acet-bucket-bomb—-mythbusters-gone-complete-/
John DeArmond once posted how they a group of guys at a nuclear power plant took 55 gallon barrels, dropped them down the vent tube on the roof, signaled the operator with walkie-talkies that they’d just dropped the barrel.
The operator would then do an “emergency vent” and the barrel would launch so high that the guys on the roof lost sight of it, until it splashed down in the cooling pond. The fun ended when one landed on a car in the parking lot.
The Ancient and Honourable Hyack Anvil Battery has been firing a 21 Anvil Salute to the Queen every Victoria Day since 1860. Well, except for 1900. The year Victoria died. It’s a favourite tradition for the holiday in New Westminster.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYxVDW9SBOY
You’ve got to wonder how those traditions started.
I can imagine someone firing anvils and a constable coming up and saying “What do you think you’re doing there?” And our quick witted anvil firer saying “It’s in honour of the Queen!”
“Oh… well then, carry on.”
Love the portable forge and the firing method.
According to this article its because blasting random bits of steel invariably leads to large chunks fracturing into smaller chunks during liftoff. Looks like they use modern (non-cast) anvils that can take the abuse.
http://www.anvilmag.com/comment/111d2.htm
Aside from agreeing with Joey about ruining good anvils, I’m trying to work out the appropriate safe distance to be from a thing such as this, as to my mind they seemed to be well inside the potential kill-zone. Any physicists / ballsisticians care to comment?
Not all anvils are good. Some are evil and must be dealt with.
I blame Chuck Jones, dropping all those anvils on Wile E. Coyote.
(1) Were these Harbor Freight anvils? Yeah, I thought not.
(2) Did they use an Arduino? I bet a 555-Time would have worked better.
how old is this video
Because… Reasons. For Science!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jHU2bbLJIQ