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
Basically your body can’t get out of the way of the explosion fast enough so your squishy bits get compressed. This compression can be enough to damage or shatter your squishy bits (or even your not so squishy bits if your close enough). This can cause enough damage to kill you but unless your standing over top of the explosive or in the fireball very unlikely to kill you.
Part 2 is shrapnel. Shrapnel goes waaaaaaaaaaaay farther than the pressure wave. And depending on distance and explosive type can be traveling at 1km/s +. This is the really dangerous part of an explosion. The shrapnel are essentially bullets and will kill you in the same way one from a gun will. It doesn’t really matter what your shrapnel is made of generally it’s traveling fast enough it doesn’t matter. However heavier pieces travel further. This is what kills you most likely in an explosion.
A good example of this is flashbang grenades. They are designed to not throw shrapnel out and unless your physically touching it your not going to risk dying or lasting disability (outside hearing damage). Despite having about the same amount of energetic material as the snake antipersonel grenades.
Burns aren’t as life threatening from explosives but can still be pretty damaging. Generally if you get burned and survive your explosive deflagrated instead of detonating and wasn’t super well confined. Again shrapnel is what will usually kill you. Especially if you’re close enough to worry about heat or pressure.
Unless your in a cave or building and then vacuum might be what does you in.
Watch any Kurzgesagt video on Youtube involving explosions or nukes and you will get a good visual ELI5.
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