6/3/2002: Suicide bomber shrapnel

[TheDollyLlama]

This is not at first obvious, but telling. Most of our experience with explosions came from too many episodes of the A-Team. Here's a little primer.

Explosions are just fast acting chemical reactions that create large amounts of heat and vast quantities of gas. The pressure of the newly created gas expands (well...explodes, duh) outwards.

Explosive weapons then, harness the energy of the expanding gas to propel bits of metal in all directions. The overpressure from the gas itself is only harmful relatively close up. Anti-personnel artillery is loaded up with lots of nasty bits called fleshettes. Suicide bombers packing nails is just the Anarchist Cookbook extension of this.

Your trivia of the day is that Artillery and therefore shrapnel is responsible for more wartime casualties than any other weapon.

Fire for effect indeed...