Questions tagged [explosions]
For questions that refer in general to the violent expenditure of energy in a specific area that is typically referred to as an explosion.
99
questions
7
votes
2answers
538 views
What would armor designed to withstand a grenade blast in an enclosed space look like?
Let's say that someone throws an M67 hand grenade into a completely enclosed room - i.e. the door is the only entrance/exit.
How would someone build a suit of armor to functionally negate the ...
10
votes
17answers
4k views
What natural material shatters when thrown like a grenade?
Our intrepid wizard protagonist realizes there is only one of him and an army of baddies. He has a band of some 50 people with him, but only a dozen have combat training and he is the only spellcaster....
-1
votes
1answer
53 views
Soldier hit unconscious [closed]
A character who is close to the explosion of a mortar shell has a concussion and his lights go out.
In this situation would it be possible to lose consciousness without a loss of blood?
If so how ...
12
votes
13answers
2k views
What's the safest way to carry and throw marble sized high-explosive grenades?
Pull the context and count to three sentences
Let's imagine an army has created a kind of explosive similar to grenades, but much smaller in size while maintaining a good chunk of offensive output.
...
0
votes
3answers
138 views
Making minefields with potash
Many modern explosives would have changed the history of sieges and raids.
A modern phoenix bomb (american claymore) can injure and entire shieldwall of soldiers.
A field of mines and phoenixes and ...
6
votes
3answers
1k views
Would a pool of petroleum explode if lit on fire?
A large pool of crude oil 60 feet in diameter and about 10 feet deep. It sits atop a 100ft. tall stone pillar with a 5ft radius hole that leads down into the earth. If the oil on top is exposed to a ...
2
votes
3answers
118 views
Damage estimate for a large acetylene explosion
In a laboratory in a university building, a gas tap is accidentally opened at the end of the working day. The gas tap is connected to a bank of large acetylene cylinders. The gas tap is ejecting 0....
-5
votes
2answers
118 views
Swallowing Multiple Grenades
Okay, there's a character who is force-fed multiple grenades. The resulting explosion does severe damage to their body, but doesn't completely destroy them, and their healing factor fixes all of the ...
11
votes
3answers
1k views
Could a dyson sphere survive a supernova?
So, a civilization built a massive Dyson Sphere around a supergiant star. As the star ages, it begins to fuse iron. At this point, the force of radiation pressure cannot prevent core collapse, and ...
4
votes
5answers
699 views
What would a scientific accurate exploding Krypton look like/be like for anyone standing on the planet?
I like superhero movies and Superman is one of my absolute favorites.
And one stable thing in that universe is always that Krypton goes kaboom, the reasons for this are multiple: from the original one ...
10
votes
6answers
2k views
chance of surviving a planet killer explosion
Our main characters have just arrived at the brand new SpaceStation2™ (now with geostationary orbit!) soon they get settled in with the other characters already there, then the planet explodes, no ...
3
votes
3answers
122 views
Lava projectiles
I have a civilization that lives near an active volcano. For battle, they use the lava to their advantage, and one of their projectile weapons is a small sphere with lava inside. When thrown, it ...
3
votes
6answers
249 views
Could a bug sting induce a human body to explode?
The setup is similar to a funny horror movie or like Troma movies. Deaths only happen to insignificant, unnamed characters.
However, I would like to have some plausible science back-up (maybe slightly ...
-3
votes
1answer
78 views
Smallest amount of conventional explosives required to create a crater 7m wide and 4m deep [closed]
What is the smallest amount of conventional explosives possible to create a crater that is roughly 7 meters in diameter and four to five meters deep?
Bob needs to know this in order to successfully ...
1
vote
3answers
188 views
How strong is the "explosion" of a bubblegum?
This is for a fantasy/fiction story. I have a character who can manipulate her gum bubbles (so make them strong or bigger, blah blah...), that's why I wanted to know if the explosions of her bubbles ...
-3
votes
2answers
145 views
3 Asteroids hit the planet - What happens next? [closed]
3 Large Asteroids, each the rough size of London, UK, in diameter. The Asteroids are rocky, with bits of water and ice in them as well.
They impact the Earth, at 57km/s, in South America, East Africa, ...
11
votes
5answers
2k views
How easily can a medieval granary explode?
The villainous gremlins are attempting to cause as much damage to the lands of the Empire as possible with as little effort as practical. They have numerous plans to this end. One such plan is to blow ...
2
votes
2answers
111 views
How can I describe an incredible release of power, realistically [closed]
In my writing, a goddess is removed from her position as a god and reduced to a human. (See my question on writing.SE) At the moment of the loss of power huge amounts of energy would be released into ...
2
votes
2answers
271 views
How to prevent ship's AI from initiating self destruct sequence regardless of captain's permission?
Set in a distant future, every interstellar spaceship runs on antimatter propulsion which can achieve fractional speed of light travel. There is a doctrine stating that all spaceships with mass ...
7
votes
5answers
2k views
Are "Bomb Catapults" actually feasible?
I was recently thinking about which technologies an Isekai-Protagonist could give his allies in a medival fantasy world. For all those who don't know, Isekai is an anime genre where the protagonist is ...
1
vote
3answers
237 views
Feasibility of making a imploding bomb
In a dystopian story I’ve created, humanity is in a near constant war, but is still more advanced than modern day humans. One weapon that is used in this war is called the “I.N”, short for imploding ...
2
votes
1answer
138 views
What adaptations should a utility fog, that's meant to be an air-fuel explosive, have?
I found a way to ensure that even if either the Japanese Self-Defense Force or the U.S Army invades my fantasy world, its inhabitants would still have a fighting chance.
Utiltiy Fog
Hall thought ...
5
votes
2answers
129 views
How big of a wave would this falling cliff create?
I'm running a D&D campaign and, well, the players had blown up a cave filled with explosives under a 40-metr cliff. I told them the cliff cracked and fell into the ocean. 40 meters tall, 30 meters ...
4
votes
3answers
137 views
What Kind of Bolide Would Chicxulub Be to Create the Bigger Airburst--Asteroid or Comet?
66 million years ago, something brought an end to the long-established dinosaur empire. The pendulum just kept shifting between an asteroid and a comet, astronomical bolides that actually have ...
28
votes
6answers
8k views
The students have blown up the school using stuff that looks like snow. How?
In Hungarian, there is a new-ish folk-song sung by school-children who dislike school whenever it snows to the tune of Twinkle, twinkle, little star:
Hull a pelyhes dinamit,
Robbantsuk fel a sulit!
...
29
votes
10answers
10k views
Consequences of an Earth-size object hitting the Sun?
Suppose an extra-solar object the size and mass of the Earth, travelling at a speed of $26\ \mathrm{km/s}$, the same of ʻOumuamua (the first known interstellar object crossing our solar system), hit ...
27
votes
7answers
8k views
Feasibility of H.G. Wells' Continuously-Exploding Atomic Bombs
I came across this interesting weapon by H.G. Wells, from his novel, The World Set Free, about a special type of atomic bomb that will explode indefinitely.
Here is a description on Wikipedia:
...
11
votes
4answers
3k views
What would be the effect(s) of this asteroid?
"At this very moment we face a threat insurmountable to Man. We are faced with two options. Stay on Earth and die, or leave Earth to space." - UN Preservation Council, CE 2047
Earth, year CE 2047
An ...
8
votes
2answers
2k views
Could a robot that can survive at the center of the Earth also survive a nuclear explosion?
The robot in question is a very large, worm-like mining robot with a huge drill on its front end, built to survive staggering levels of heat and pressure. It's so resiliant, in fact, that it can ...
6
votes
3answers
214 views
Is it Possible for a Biological Creature to Spew/Breathe an Explosive Instead?
I want to make my dragon spew/breathe an explosive mix with gizzard stone fragments/shrapnel, more like a shotgun than the common flamethrower-like fire breath.
So is there any explosive chemical that ...
2
votes
5answers
282 views
Drawbacks of my Catastrophe Inhibitor
Warning lots of text ahead.
The fluff:
The story uses a Catastrophe Inhibitor (CatIn) to stop nukes, orbital bombardment and other such weapons from being the go-to method of defeating everything on ...
7
votes
3answers
417 views
How could a charge-type breath weapon work?
Charge-type breath weapon: Creatures with this type shoot singular, high-damage, high-precision "charges" of (insert dragon's element here) that explode upon contact. Examples: Toothless from the ...
3
votes
3answers
371 views
Is antimatter boosted nuclear weapon theoretically possible?
Are there any fundamental obstacles to using a nuclear explosion as a trigger for antimatter generation and thus considerably increasing the yield?
0
votes
7answers
349 views
How would a character build an explosive from natural elements?
A character is on an alien planet that is very much like any one of our large deserts. Sort of a Tatooine like on Star Wars.
He needs to cause a diversion. There aren't any explosives on planet of ...
4
votes
1answer
204 views
Would conventional explosives work differently under denser atmosphere?
Would conventional explosives work differently under denser atmosphere? (If yes in any noticeable way, then how to roughly calculate the difference)
Possible clarifications:
normal, conventional ...
1
vote
1answer
144 views
Is there a formula for scaling explosive detonation velocity? (Supernova level) [closed]
For context, I’m planning a novel with as much ridiculous magic as ridiculous science so, yes I know, it’s impossible but bear with me.
There is a supermassive black hole that weighs 1 trillion solar ...
12
votes
8answers
3k views
How would an energy-based "projectile" blow up a spaceship?
I have noticed this in many fictions: during a battle between spaceships exchanging fire in empty space, a pulse of laser fire hits the hull and the entire spaceship explodes into many pieces.
Is ...
10
votes
2answers
225 views
Fortifications capable of withstanding atmosphere-clearing blast
On the Atomic Rockets site, there is a series of handy tables, the first of which is aptly named "The Boom Table", providing examples for a wide range of energy releases (in both Joules and TNT ...
60
votes
8answers
13k views
Does a grenade kill you the same way a gun does?
Disclaimer
This seems a particularly stupid question, but the more I think about it, the less trivial I find it. Worldbuilding possess the most appropriate tags. It does not fit in physics-network ...
47
votes
3answers
21k views
Let’s say a 1 ton (US) sphere of tungsten moving at 99.99% the speed of light hits earth, what happens? As specific as possible
What kind of destruction would it cause? I’m assuming it’d be rather significant, could it shatter a tectonic plate? The crust? How would the oceans fare? Would the planet be able to catch the ...
12
votes
2answers
2k views
How much hydrogen and oxygen can I add to an atmosphere before it explodes?
Hydrogen and oxygen gases can be combined to form water and a lot of heat. As with many exothermic reactions, the heat from this process can provide activation energy to the reaction of more H2 with ...
3
votes
2answers
243 views
Can a planet with chaotic rotation have more than one ring rotating in differents axis? [duplicate]
Let's say that planet earth have a big explosion . An explosion generated in earth big enough to change the planet shape. Making earth having a chaotic rotation like Hyperion leaving water and rocks ...
1
vote
2answers
185 views
How would a colossal explosion affect an ocean-based planet?
In my book series, a space station called the T-Ray that is capable of causing explosions the size of the Chixculub impact explosion just fired at a planet that is completely covered by a massive ...
11
votes
10answers
5k views
Could a super high pressure canister act as a bomb?
Imagine a metal canister capable of holding massive amounts of air or some other compressible substance. If it were filled with enormous amounts of said fluid and dropped from a plane, how destructive ...
7
votes
4answers
1k views
Would an explosion or energy discharge permeate to other spatial dimensions?
Let's assume there are more than 3 spatial dimension, for example 4 (the 4th not beeing time, but spatial)
Would a common energy discharge, explosion etc. affect the 4th dimension?
I am not sure if ...
6
votes
2answers
194 views
Explosive jellyfish
Could a creature like this exist?
Jellyfish or cephalopod-like creatures that live in 'swarms' underwater. They float aimlessly around in a net formation. When one member detects prey below the ...
25
votes
7answers
7k views
How would skeptics know that a single-engine plane could not destroy a falling meteor?
So I'm writing a story and decided to use Hida Furukawa as the location. It has a high school with a field of 650 ft that theoretically could be used for a small aircraft to be use to take off. In the ...
-2
votes
1answer
149 views
Reason to stay on a doomed spaceship [closed]
For plot reasons, the captain must stay on the ship while his crew (including his wife) get in escape pods and leave. Unfortunately we haven't found a satisfying reason for this yet.
What engine or ...
6
votes
4answers
688 views
Are there size constraints to Time Bubbles?
I'm creating various artificial Time Bubbles in my universe where time flows faster or slower inside a specified area, typically depicted as a semi-transparent bubble. Before developing any more ...
2
votes
2answers
132 views
Accuracy of a timed fuse manufactured by a stone-age tribe
So, having discovered gunpowder, my stone-age tribe needs some timed fuses for their explosive arrows and landmines. However, I am unsure of how accurate their fuses would be. The quality of their ...
