Explosive material
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Explosives are chemical compounds. They cause explosions; they flare up and burst with loud sound. An explosive material has many special characters, and some of them are:
- It is unstable material, and changes its form very fast
- While changing its form, it explodes by bursting and making loud sound.
Explosives are of two types: low explosives and high explosives. This classification depends on their rate of explosion. Low explosives burn very fast. High explosives explode with bursts.
A low explosive is a material, which burns very fast, but does not explode generally. For exploding them, people mix them with high explosives. Sometimes, even a low explosive may explode.
A high explosive bursts and explodes very fast. People use high explosives in mining, destroying old buildings. Military weapons use high explosives.
High explosives may belong to different groups: primary explosives and secondary explosives. Primary explosives rapidly react to shock, friction, and heat. Any shock, friction, or heat makes primary explosives to burn or blast fast. Secondary explosives do not react very fast to shock, friction, and heat. Any shock, friction, or heat may burn such explosives, but not make them to burst and blast. Some people call secondary explosives as base explosives. Some people also tell about another group of explosives. These are tertiary explosives. These explosives do not react to shock, friction, and heat. For explosion, tertiary explosives may need a mixture with secondary explosives.
While sending explosives from one place to another, the packs containing different types of explosives may have different types of markings on the boxes. The United Nations has advised use of such markings. Some examples are:
- 1.1 Mass Explosion Hazard
- 1.2 Nonmass explosion, fragment-producing
- 1.3 Mass fire, minor blast or fragment hazard
- 1.4 Moderate fire, no blast or fragment: a consumer firework is 1.4G or 1.4S
- 1.5 Explosive substance, very insensitive (with a mass explosion hazard)
- 1.6 Explosive article, extremely insensitive
high explosives produce more pressure than low explosives.
