top 50 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] 68 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)
  • [–] 46 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

    This gets posted bimonthly around here

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 15 points 3 weeks ago (1 child)

    It could be possible this post is part of some disinformation campaign

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 17 points 3 weeks ago (1 child)

    It sounds good and some people share such things without critical thought. It's like adding sugar to petrol - it doesn't actually do anything beyond possibly clogging the fuel filter, but the promise of such easy means of destruction appeals to some.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 15 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

    Stick a potato in a tailpipe and the back pressure will blow up the exhaust manifold!

    I actually did this as a kid and it just pops out like cork.

    Internet said shove it deep into the exhaust pipe with a broomstick.

    When you do this it pops out just like a potato cannon.

    Turns out that exploding gasoline is stronger than the friction of a slippery potato in a steel tube. Who'd have thought.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • load more comments (2 replies)
  • [–] 13 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

    It doesn't fully work if you add enough sugar it technically would but all it will do is just slow the setting process

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • [–] 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 child)

    The concrete is actually stronger once it sets if you add sugar to it

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • load more comments (1 reply)
  • [–] 38 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

    IIRC from my material science course, if you really want to fuck up a batch of concrete, you should use salt instead of sugar, cause it'll crack the concrete with every freeze and thaw cycle.

  • source
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 5 points 3 weeks ago

    It’s the same as with the sugar, you need a lot of it to make much of a difference. Unless it’s reinforced concrete, then the salt in the water will corrode the steel rebar and that will definitely cause cracking.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 32 points 3 weeks ago (1 child)

    Put a couple packets of sugar in about two quarts of leftover bag concrete once just to see how it went. Initially it acted like it had plasticizer and got loose and wet again. A day or two later it was acting like it had just set and a month later I could still crumble the edges off with my thumb.

    Problems with using this for sabotage. Any serious project will have an engineer checking every truck and it will not pass unless the person adding water at the plant was in on it and did some very good calculations. Then the saved samples would immediately give them away in the investigation. During and after the pour there are too many people watching. I would have to say putting brown sugar and salt in the footing trenches the night before it’s poured or spraying (big puddles will get drained) a solution on top of the plastic to look like rain or dew.

  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 20 points 3 weeks ago

    Even if it gets found out, there is still value in destroying an entire shipment of concrete, and making them reschedule a new shipment on another day, wasting a lot of money.

    That's PROFIT being wasted, a severe crime in the United States of Ferengenar.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 13 points 3 weeks ago (7 children)

    Why does this work, exactly?

  • source
  • hideshow 8 child comments
  • [–] 56 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

    It doesn't! (ish)

    Sugar can slow down the hardening of concrete, but this is too small of a concentration and even if you do increase the concentration it still hardens which (depending on the application) does not ruin it.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 6 child comments
  • [–] 22 points 3 weeks ago (1 child)

    Yes from what I can find, depending on the type of concrete, it takes 4-30lbs of sugar per ton. The point is not to keep it permanently plastic, it will set, but its structural integrity is greatly compromised and it will crumble under stresses far, far, lower than it will need to deal with.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 6 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

    So now you have a prison which will catastrophically collapse upon the prisoners?

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 16 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

    Well no because the other part of this that isnt talked about is... concrete is heavy as fuck, and one ton of concrete is basically nothing size wise. Its more like you have to throw 200lbs of sugar in every truck that arrives at the job site, often with many many trucks.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 1 point 3 weeks ago*

    I agree that the sugar thing is not really feasible, but if you could find a way to lower the integrity of the concrete, you wouldn't have to do it to the whole project, only the foundation or the first part of the first floor.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 7 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)

    what if I drink the concrete before it hardens? will that work?

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 10 child comments
  • load more comments (2 replies)
  • [–] 6 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

    There's like a thousand caveats to this though just as an aside. If someone realizes the concrete is tampered with, they're probably tossing the whole batch. It's better to be safe than sorry and they probably don't have time to wait for the lab report on what got added to the mix without their permission.

    Not that I'm recommending that people do this, but if you wanted to fuck up concrete I'd think going for a compound that makes it cure faster would be the way to go. Too fast leads to more heat which leads to fractures in the concrete from the intense heat.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 6 points 3 weeks ago

    Salt. Salt will completely fuck concrete.

    There were Chinese construction companies that cut corners and used beach sand instead of more expensive river sand.

    The buildings the made are all called Tofu towers or something similar, because you can walk up to the ones still standing and pull chunks off, like they were made of tofu.

  • source
  • parent
  • load more comments (6 replies)
    [–] 8 points 3 weeks ago

    I never got people screenshoting their response to a post, and posting it everywhere else.

    Especially when it's bad information.

    It is like self importance is greater than 5 mins of research.

  • source
  • [–] 6 points 3 weeks ago

    How much wall does one tonne of concrete give you? Seems like you need tonnes of sugar to properly do this

  • source
  • [–] 4 points 3 weeks ago

    Breaking in the container office building thing and turning the blueprints upside down has better chances of success.

  • source
  • [–] 3 points 3 weeks ago

    You'd need at least 10lbs of sugar per ton of concrete, probably closer to 40. If it's a full truck it's probably around 800lbs of sugar to ruin the load.

  • source
  • [–] 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 child)

    I'll believe it when me shit turns purple

  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 1 point 3 weeks ago (2 children)
  • [–] 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 child)

    Explicitly useful literally, describing a "ton" of concrete is an ambiguous linguistic expression and by using the word literally they denote an actual unit of measurement. Unfortunately they didn't specify which ton they mean, but regardless the order of magnitude is generally conveyed in a properly useful way.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • load more comments (1 reply)
    [–] 1 point 3 weeks ago

    Is this to stop the Suburban Rail Loop for some reason?

  • source
  • load more comments
    view more: next β€Ί