good explanation bruce !

one of the reasons TNT became the product of choice over other
explosives such as nitro. Easy to transport and very stable

http://mooni.fccj.org/~ethall/explode/explode.htm

Trinitrotoluene is a high explosive that is
unaffected by ordinary shocks and
therefore must be set off by a detonator. TNT
is often mixed with other
explosives such as ammonium nitrate to form
amatol. Because it is insensitive to
shock and must be exploded with a detonator,
it is the most favored explosive
used in munitions and construction.
Why do nitro groups (NO2) lead to unstable
compounds?
Nitrogen has charge of +1 and nitro group have
a strong tendency to withdraw
(pull) electrons from other parts of the
compound. Attaching three nitro groups to
a compound leads to an extremely unstable
situation.




markus


Bruce in Alaska wrote:

In article ,
(John Michael Williams) wrote:

but what would happen is that the uncombusted atoms
of the TNT would be just accelerated away by the shock
of detonation.

Eventually, they might be combusted, but not as part of
the detonation. So, their combustion energy contribution
isn't counted as part of the explosion.

The above is just plain NONSENSE. When TNT Detonates, it is the
detonation wave front that causes the cyclic ring of tolulene to
break and release the bonding energy of the molecule. The detonation
wave front is traveling faster than the the molecules can move on their
own, so they don't move, they just get slammed by the detonation wave.
There is a GIANT difference between combustion and detonation. TNT
does NOT combust when it decomposes in a detonation.

Bruce in alaska
--
add a 2 before @