• Question: Do you blow up stuff?

    Asked by 09scots1 to Usaid on 13 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Usaid Rauf

      Usaid Rauf answered on 13 Mar 2012:

      This question made me laugh! Laugh in a good way. The question is so awesome, thank you so much for asking me!

      Unfortunately, no, I do not blow up stuff. 🙁 No one in my company does, we only try to generate electricity. If anything ever blew up, it would be by accident only and never intentional.

Comments

  • Photo: Joanne

    Joanne commented on :

    Hello 09scots1!
    What an exciting question.

    I’m Jo from the Health Zone and I like your question because I blow things up!
    Engineers call it destructive testing.

    I’ve blown up water-valves and pipes. These are the ones that your tap water comes in to get it to your house. We test them to make sure they don’t break and leak under normal water pressure (which is about 5-6 bar). We blow them up at over 100 bar and watch them explode. It’s all good, wet fun.

    Engineers also blow up things like bins (the big plastic ones you see outside) this is to make sure we can reduce any possible damage that could be caused if terrorists planted a bomb.

    • Photo: Usaid

      Usaid commented on :

      We have testing that’s similar (also much more lame). It’s called Non-Destructive Testing – but this is looking for cracks and manufacturing faults that are not obvious. This kind of testing uses soundwaves and x-rays to see if everything’s OK on the inside.