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Questions tagged [explosives]

for questions about claims based on explosives and purportedly explosive substances.

24 votes
1 answer
13k views

Is there any possibility that CERN's Large Hadron Collider run 3 can be devastating?

When I was a kid, there was a lot of discussion on electronic media channels that the run of CERN's Large Hadron Collider would lead to black holes. At that time, the president of India, APJ Abdul ...
hanugm's user avatar
  • 495
-5 votes
1 answer
375 views

How could a glass pane and a piece of cloth survive an explosion?

The Tilma of the Virgin of Guadalupe is purported to have survived an explosion from dynamite placed inside a bouquet of flowers in 1921. It is commonly purported that this is a miracle, so I was ...
cameronz's user avatar
17 votes
2 answers
3k views

Is the Cobra 80 fire cracker "three to four times as powerful" as a hand grenade?

In this news article about illegal fireworks it is claimed (translated from Dutch): Chief of police Oscar Dros of the Oost-Nederland police district says that fireworks is no longer innocent. "We ...
Martin Tournoij's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
703 views

Does the GRU-43/B "Massive Ordnance Air Blast" weapon cost $US16 million?

I read in the past for the existence of the so called "Mother Of All Bombs" and for some reason I still thought it was a fuel-air or thermobaric bomb. However after the first operational use (here) I ...
Arkoudinos's user avatar
16 votes
1 answer
17k views

Can gasoline and frozen orange juice concentrate make napalm?

In the movie Fight Club, the character Tyler Durden says that equal parts gasoline and frozen orange juice concentrate make napalm. The question's very simple; would this mixture make napalm, anything ...
KeithS's user avatar
  • 1,973
24 votes
2 answers
39k views

Can Drano in water bottles cause an explosion?

I received the following email today: Kids are putting Drano (a blocked drain substance) tin foil, and a little water in plastic drink bottles and capping it up - leaving it on lawns, in mail ...
Casebash's user avatar
  • 10.2k
22 votes
2 answers
3k views

"cut the blue wire" - do EOD technicians ever do that?

In numerous movies police or military EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) technicians defuse bombs by cutting wires. It is common enough to be a trope. On the other hand if you read actual news, it's ...
vartec's user avatar
  • 26.7k
17 votes
4 answers
5k views

Would a large quantity of gasoline in a closed container explode violently when exposed to fire?

We've all seen the movies: Rambo runs over one of the terminals at a gas station, freeing the flow of gasoline to the street, the gasoline finds its way under a military vehicle, and the vehicle ...
Naftuli Kay's user avatar
  • 1,317