Tuesday, December 2, 2014

The Science Behind Explosions

When I think about explosions, I do not know the science behind them I just know it is violent, involves chemicals in some way, and can be quite intense. On a website called Chemistry Explained, I now understand a little more on the science behind explosions. An explosions is a sudden, violent change of potential energy to work that is transferred to its surroundings in the form of a rapid movement with rise in pressure which causes a blast wave or shock wave. Knowing this helped me understand the lesson we just went over in chemistry about potential energy, work, and surroundings. There are three types of explosions; nuclear, chemical, and physical. So what’s the difference? According to Chemistry Explained, nuclear explosions often are caused by fusion or fission reactions. With the fusion reaction the nuclei of two small atoms combine to form a single larger atom, because the mass of the products of the reaction is less than the mass of the reactants the difference in mass is converted to energy. With fission reactions, the splitting of the atom caused by neutrons. Chemical explosions are exothermic where decomposition or composition where energy is converted to work. Physical explosion deals with high pressure like when a tire or a balloon has too much hair in it then POP!! That’s a physical explosion. You can learn more at:



Submitted by Niquana Smith

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