How does gunpowder in guns function?
In: Technology
Gunpowder is an explosive powder.
When ignited the powder creates hot gases which increase the pressure in the barrel which then accelerates the projectile down the barrel.
From a chemistry perspective Gunpowder (Potassium nitrate, sulfur, and carbon) reacting together form nitrogen and carbon dioxide gases, heat energy, and potassium sulfide.
Modern propellants in gun cartridges are made of different chemicals but the operate under the same basic principle. The explode creating hot gases.
It just burns like any other accelerant.
A modern cartridge consists of 4 components.
A primer, a case, the gunpowder, and the bullet.
The primer is the detonator. When the firing pin of the gun hits it, it makes a small spark.
That spark sets the gunpowder on fire.
The gunpowder burns very fast and somewhat violently, creating a huge amount of gas that rapidly expands inside the case.
The pressure from the gas pushes the bullet out of the case (it is held in by a very tight friction fit) and down the barrel of the gun at tremendous speed.
How it works is just burning really fast.
Gunpowder or smokeless powder, is a “low explosive”, aka a propellant.
A low explosive *deflagrates*, in other words it burns extremely rapidly. When it burns, it produces a ton of rapidly expanding gas. That gas has to go somewhere, and the easiest escape route is to push the bullet out of the barrel.
For those curious, high explosives *detonate*. Where the explosive combusts so fast that it’s supersonic, that’s why high explosives going off is so violent.
Latest Answers