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
The most lethal part of an explosion is the pressure change. Since the human body is more or less a bag of organs, getting caught in a high pressure area very suddenly tends to squish things, particularly organs that aren’t internally supported well, like the lungs. Depending on the explosive other factors can make a difference, such as shrapnel or heat. [Here](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=W4DnuQOtA8E) is a video comparing the likelihood of surviving a grenade on land compared to underwater, which might answer things a little better.
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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