for questions about claims based on explosives and purportedly explosive substances.
Questions tagged [explosives]
8 questions
24
votes
2 answers
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 boxes, in gardens, on driveways etc. just waiting
…

Casebash
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24
votes
1 answer
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 Kalam, said there were no chances for destruction.…

hanugm
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22
votes
2 answers
"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 most often that either blow the battery off with…

vartec
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17
votes
2 answers
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 recently found a stash of illegal fireworks in…

Martin Tournoij
- 458
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17
votes
4 answers
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 violently explodes, presumably from the gas in the gas…

Naftuli Kay
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16
votes
1 answer
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 like napalm, or a precursor to it? My guess is…

KeithS
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votes
1 answer
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 went back to re-read its technical aspects.
It…

Arkoudinos
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votes
1 answer
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 wondering if there was any evidence of material like…

cameronz
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