How fast does dynamite explode

Detonation and Combustion. The release of energy energy extremely useful for military purposes is fundamental to both these phenomena. In both detonation and combustion, energy is released when a complex molecule is broken down into simpler constituent parts; however, as will be explained below, combustion is a much slower process. Low explosives like black powder rely on combustion to generate energy.

Combustion is produced by the reaction of oxygen and some sort of fuel at high temperatures. As a result, the rate of a combustion reaction is limited both by the amount of fuel present and the amount of oxygen it comes in contact with. If the reaction had to rely on oxygen gathered from the surrounding atmosphere, it would be very slow. Instead, most low explosives include both a fuel and an oxidizing agent which releases oxygen when heated.

Consider for instance black powder, the most primitive form of gunpowder and the quintessential low explosive. In black powder, charcoal and sulphur are the fuel, and postassium nitrate KNO3 is the oxidizing agent. This allows burning to occur much more quickly.

The carbon and hydrogen combine with oxygen, and the nitrogen is liberated. Dynamite is simply some sort of absorbent material like sawdust soaked in nitroglycerin. The absorbent material makes the nitroglycerin much more stable. You normally use a blasting cap to detonate dynamite -- a blasting cap creates a small explosion that triggers the larger explosion in the dynamite itself.

Sign up for our Newsletter! Mobile Newsletter banner close. He made one of his most important discoveries when he found that by mixing nitroglycerine, an oily fluid, with kieselguhr , the mixture could be turned into a paste.

This material could be kneaded and shaped into rods suitable for insertion into drilling holes. He called his paste dynamite and went on to develop a blasting cap which could be used to detonate dynamite under controlled conditions. Nobel Prizes Thirteen laureates were awarded a Nobel Prize in , for achievements that have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind.