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April 23[edit]

Explosive -- fictional or not?[edit]

What is this "terenite" ("теренит") referred to (but AFAIR never actually used) in Adamov's Mystery of the Two Oceans ("Тайна двух океанов")? Is it a purely fictional high explosive, or is it something which exists IRL? (I thought until recently that this was the Russian name for PETN (from "TEtRaNITrate"), but the article doesn't mention this alternative name, and indeed says that PETN is known in Russian as "Penta".) 2601:646:9882:46E0:C8A3:B9D9:B22B:97D8 (talk) 23:39, 23 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The word seems to be used in mineralogy for a pseudomorph of muscovite after scapolite,^[1] but this has nothing to do with the substance in the novel. The most likely, I think, is that the term was invented by Adamov for a fictional explosive. --Lambiam 06:38, 24 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

As with "iocaine powder". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 10:24, 24 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Oh? Adamov also invented terenite with iocaine powder? —Tamfang (talk) 19:43, 26 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia has an article titled List of fictional elements, materials, isotopes and subatomic particles. Perhaps, if you have a reference, you could add it to that list. --Jayron 32 14:17, 24 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Terenite is included here in a list of fictional "superexplosives", but unfortunately this is not a "reliable source". --Lambiam 21:54, 24 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks! So, it was purely fictional, and the (supposed) derivation of the name from PETN is just a coincidence -- right? 73.162.86.152 (talk) 01:00, 25 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]