eli5 : Why are shockwaves so powerful?

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I was watching the videos of the Beirut incident ,and was wondering why the shockwave is so impactful.

In: Physics

2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

When you detonate a high explosive, it’s actually a chemical reaction that multiplies the volume of the explosive material. So if you have like a gallon of explosive, it can almost instantaneously become 20 gallons of a gas (these are just made up numbers to illustrate the point of volume expansion)

All of that new volume of gas created displaces a lot of air. So it’s basically pushing the air in every direction making space for the new gas. This creates the shockwave, which can be moving at 2000mph. This blast of air is moving at a speed like 6-7 times faster than the air in an F5 tornado. Very destructive

Anonymous 0 Comments

Because that shockwave was powered by LOTS of energy. Ammonium nitrate is used as a fertilizer and as a precursor for explosives. Hence the huge amount of energy released when it exploded.

There are shockwaves that have minimal energy. As can be expected there is a direct relationship between energy expelled and shockwave produced.