this is indeed a wonderful yarn
for that is all it is

explosions like all forces of nature follow the path of least resistance

there are a fair few here who are far more capable in the maths and physics department (you might even get the odd equation lobbed at you) but they will reiterate the following...

there is no chance of this wonderful woody tale being true.

an 8 ton tree stump would still have a fairly hefty root system

so even if you had severed the roots, put all the dynamite under it and ignited it simultaneously as opposed to your sequential 'firecracker' approach it would still merely have blown the wood apart at its weakest points. to launch the stump '300 foot high' you would not only need a lot more explosive power than schoolboy cobbled together TNT (even if you could order the controlled ingredients to be delivered to a school!) but in addition some form of 'barrel' device to contain the explosive power and focus it upwards as opposed to outwards would be required - yes just like a rocket

interestingly teh web has not one story of an IRA bomb attack on a school in the UK where i also grew up in the 80's - which would have been news at ten, front page major news that i would have remembered.

your 'Personal Hygiene' tale is also highly questionable - gangrene is caused by an infection to a serious wound or a lack of blood supply causing tissue to be come necrotic (die) - not by merely being a soap dodger with flappy tits and flexible morals

still - we're all here to read interesting stories - you spin a great yarn but its all bullshit.

i still clicked.
( spimf ™ is whoever you want him to be, Sat 14 Feb 2009, 11:28, 1 reply)

Let's face it Spimf
Probably half of the truly entertaining stories on here are bullshit. You know it, I know it, we all know it. It's the elephant in the room - everyone knows it, but no-one talks about it. It's just part of QOTW
(Pavlov's Frog figures no-one really reads sigs anyway, Sun 15 Feb 2009, 23:55, closed)

agreed
but don't try and tell me it was all over the news to validate it - its either funny/entertaining whatever or its not. pretending its been on news at 10 or on the front page of the sun doesn't improve the tale it just proves its a porkie
( spimf ™ is whoever you want him to be, Mon 16 Feb 2009, 6:37, closed)

Not sure it's that far beyond the possible....
... Wikipedia reckons 1 stick of commercial dynamite liberates 2.1 MJ. In round numbers, that's enough to lift 10 metric tonnes 20 metres (60+ feet) into the air.

If a schoolboy could actually handle nitroglycerine and make 14 sticks which together had the force of a single commercial stick then it's close enough to be in the realms of the possible; 60 feet would look like 200 to me, if I was "11 and deaf and on fire"!

In any case, a damn fine tale.
( Ugi , it's a game of give and cake, Mon 16 Feb 2009, 19:16, closed)

From someone who has spent a LOT of time around
explosives, his words, whether or not they are true, are relatively accurate. As a geologist working in the mines as my first job out of college I learned firsthand about the concussion that explosives (dynamite) create and they are remarkably like what is described in this thread. I have also used a lot of explosives in geophysics (kim-packs that are equivalent to about 1/3 of a stick of dynamite) and it is amazing what they will lift into the air. Twelve or thirteen sticks of dynamite placed correctly could easily pick up 13 or 14 feet of old oak tree stump. I am less convinced about one half sending a fence post into the air but it certainly could happen.

All of that said, I am glad today was a holiday as I could not stop laughing out loud as I read this. It is fairly accurate and really FUNNY.
(MichaelS wasn't picked again, Mon 16 Feb 2009, 23:12, closed)