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.
94
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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
106 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
100 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
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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
577 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
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6answers
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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
110 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
242 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 ...
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3answers
158 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
133 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
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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
107 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
257 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
224 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
129 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
133 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
7k 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!
...
28
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
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7answers
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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
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4answers
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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
182 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
259 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
404 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
357 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
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7answers
330 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
192 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
143 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
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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
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2answers
214 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 ...
59
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8answers
12k 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
20k 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
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2answers
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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
237 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 ...
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vote
2answers
158 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
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10answers
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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
189 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 ...
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7answers
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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 ...
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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
674 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
117 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 ...
27
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11answers
6k views
How to create stone-age landmines?
So, an island-dwelling stone-age tribe has discovered gunpowder and invaded several neighboring islands using their explosive arrows. However, a coalition of enemy tribes has formed in response to ...
42
votes
12answers
8k views
How to trigger explosive arrows?
So, I have a small tribe of island people with stone-age technology who have discovered how to make gunpowder. However, they want to make war on the neighboring islands, and they need a delivery ...
2
votes
2answers
162 views
Thermobaric weapons in dense atmospheres
Would thermobaric weapons be more or less effective in a denser atmosphere of another planet?
On one hand the shockwaves would be harder because of the more tightly compressed air. On the other hand ...
3
votes
4answers
189 views
If the world were blown to pieces, what would remain?
My question involves the earth being blown up using theoretical dark energy.
In this scenario, the crust and mantle are destroyed by precisely placed weapons so that all that remains is the core.
...
2
votes
2answers
334 views
Power Armoring the Marines against blasts
The scenario: Near future robotics technology has an energy storage breakthrough, and one of the many implications is battery operated powered suits of armor become a viable technology for soldiers ...
