Breaking Bad Special: Mercury Fulminate | MythBusters

[normiewhodrawsonpaper]

"Jesse, we need to cook Mercury Fulminate for the Discover channel."

[tejasbaing]

only heisenburg can make it pure crystal

[thugli]

I bet they chose that guy only because of his name

[joesimon]

In the t.v. show he states there were a little tweaks to the formula to make it more powerful. So a bit of poetic license is justified

[Saiaix]

Re-watching Breaking Bad right now, and I loved the particular moment where Walter did this... however, my suspension of disbelief was not centered around the fact that such a little crystal exploded so powerfully in the show, but that anyone in that room was capable of hearing, let alone conscious or in one piece given the fact that the explosion not only shattered all windows but knocked an AC unit out of one. That's some 80's action-movie explosion resistance on the part of all the characters. XD

[LastSong]

So...they bust this myth without even creating the crystallized form. They shouldn't have even bothered.

[projectdelta]

stuff is stupid easy to make
nitric acid
mercury (obviously)
alcohol
mainly used in primer caps in weapons in the old days
(dont try this at home do it at a friends house)

[EricPudalov]

Mythbusters: was Walt's meth really pure?

[conorwellman]

Shouldn’t this have been plausible instead of busted? Didn’t the guy say it is possible to crystallize just beyond their scope? I think it is plausible that a chemist as advanced as Walt is with access to a high school lab could possibly crystallize it.

[phasmatodea]

The thing is, Walt did say "it's fulminated mercury...with a tweak of chemistry" so maybe he altered it, made it look more crystal-like, otherwise Tuco would've definitely known that what Walt brought, was certainly not meth. It's only fiction anyway. Amazing scene. Heisenberg is a badass. Nobody messes with him!

[Julian-wpsc]

it's so funny because his name is jesse

[ротатоаск]

I think the "tweak of chemistry" walter white referred to was the fact that he crystallised the mercury fulminate.

[Camroc]

"Very sensitive to friction"
**Flips pack of it around in hand**
"Sensitive to friction"
"friction"
"FRICTION"

[xxLgitvidzxx]

Kids in Africa could have eaten that mercury

[cteckerman]

i love this scene, along with the rest of Breaking Bad, but I find it hard to believe that an explosion that powerful wouldn't kill/injure everyone in the room.

[secondcomingofbast]

The most unrealistic part of that episode was Walt setting the crystallized fulminated mercury down on the desk and Tuco not snatching it up to snort it.

[boostaddict_]

Fun fact, you can do something really similar with gold. Gold fulminate is, iirc, more sensitive, and much more expensive lol. It blows up and fills the air with gold dust that isn't really recoverable lol.

[himynameis]

Walter did say with a bit of chemistry tweaks... so. Until you find out what he meant, the myth isn't busted.

[puckplayer]

Rest in Peace, Grant. Much respect, much love.

[michaelpichahchy]

Hmm...Grant says Walt used "50 grams" when the bag had might have been 50g or more but the crystallized chip he threw looked to be only a few grams (depending on density). Quite the explosion for a solid, highly volatile material that size.

Walt also answered "Fulminated mercury...and a little tweak of chemistry", which seemed it likely meant a proprietary process to bind the fulminated mercury into a loosely crystallized matrix and increase the yield. Obviously he would want to show a little diplomacy to build the relationship but not give away all of his trade secrets. <3