What actually happens to the human body when an explosion happens in close proximity?

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Honestly, I’m watching a war movie and a dude got hit by an IED. It got me thinking though, and I don’t quite get what is the lethal factor in an explosion?

There always seems to be fire in the movies, and it’s clearly a lot of force. But my question is what ACTUALLY happens to (I guess anything) that gets hit by a large bomb/explosion from a play by play/physics situation?

I feel like this is kinda dark, but I just had one of those curious moments and felt like this was the appropriate place to ask

In: Physics

12 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

For conventional explosions heat doesn’t matter much.

The main lethal factor for people are flying debris (wich is why anti-personnel bombs contain some extra)

Aside from that the involved pressure hits verye harshly, depending on the size and distance of the explosion it can range from “topple you over and hit your head”, over “punch in the stomach that causes internal bleeding” to “your bodyparts are ripped apart”

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