How does gunpowder in guns function?
In: Technology
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.
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