ELi5: What makes white phosphorus so dangerous when used as a weapon of war?

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ELi5: What makes white phosphorus so dangerous when used as a weapon of war?

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20 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

If you want to actually see white phosphorus burning then I’d highly recommend this video by Explosions&Fire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud1c5w06Y5E

Anonymous 0 Comments

When white phosphorus is used as a weapon of war, it is extremely dangerous because it can cause severe burns and is highly poisonous.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Have you played Spec Ops: The Line?

I didn’t even know what White phosphorus was before playing it and now I don’t wanna anywhere nearby that.

Anonymous 0 Comments

It burns very hot, is toxic, is sticky, and can’t be easily extinguished- it will keep burning even after being doused with water.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Something I didn’t really see mentioned was the reasoning for *why* it’s still used officially.

Weight-for-weight, Willie Pete is the most effective smoke screening agent yet discovered. The vapor that comes off burning WP is phosphorus pentoxide, but on contact with the water in the air that immediately turns to phosphoric acid droplets. This means that whatever mass of vapor you produce is going to be tripled in mass by the water in the air, giving you insane amounts of smoke.
P4O10 + 6 H2O → 4 H3PO4.

Also, this means WP smoke isn’t actually smoke at all, it’s an aerosol. This means it actually scatters light instead of just providing a screen, which makes it much more effective at blocking view. Basically, it works like privacy glass instead of a cloud of smoke. Importantly, it absorbs infrared, meaning it can be used to hide from thermal imaging cameras.

So officially, WP is a screening, signaling, and marking tool. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit though if those marking rockets get used for a different purpose.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Ignites from air, burns super hot, literally can’t put it out. Jump in water and it’ll just split the water atoms into hydrogen/oxygen and make them burn too.

Its pretty fucking horrific.

Anonymous 0 Comments

In confined spaces, it burns out the oxygen and kills victims by asphyxiation. On flesh, it produces horrific burns and flames that are very hard to put out.

Anonymous 0 Comments

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Anonymous 0 Comments

In addition to the other good answers here, WP can survive (not burn) if it’s covered with dirt. As a Canadian infantryman, mid 1980s, I personally kicked over a clump of dirt and *poof*, a small bit of WP started on fire. Could be dangerous if combustibles nearby (grass, leaves, etc.). We knew to expect it. Didn’t happen often.

Anonymous 0 Comments

it’s often indiscriminate and causes much much more suffering than is needed to make a person stop fighting.