I’m sorry if I sound stupid, but i’m really confused as to how bombs/explosions work. Do you die/get hurt before of the debris and shards, or is it like the heat burning you? I’m so confused. Thanks in advance.
In: Physics
A bomb’s effect can be split into a couple of effects.
First there is the shockwave.
This comes as a result of an immense amount of force being exerted by the blast. The shockwave is air being moved very rapidly. This can absolutely kill you, if you are close enough to ground zero or you get slammed into something by it. Essentially you’d get crushed to death.
Second there is the fire.
This results (usually) from friction forces. The explosion creates so much friction that it superheats the surroundings and they catch fire. If you survive the crushing force, you can still burn to death.
As you mention flying debris is also very dangerous and that is also the killing mechanism in a fragmentation grenade. These usually aren’t very powerful explosives, but they’ll send small pieces of metal flying at very high speed. Even if you survive the burning and the crushing, debris can still kill you.
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