An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An explosive charge is a measured quantity of explosive material. The material may either be composed solely of one ingredient or be a mixture containing at least two substances.
The potential energy stored in an explosive material may, for example, be:
Deflagration (Lat: de + flagrare, 'to burn down') is subsonic combustion in which a pre-mixed flame propagates through an explosive or a mixture of fuel and oxidizer. Deflagrations in high and low explosives or fuel–oxidizer mixtures may transition to a detonation depending upon confinement and other factors. Most fires found in daily life are diffusion flames. Deflagrations with flame speeds in the range of 1 m/s differ from detonations which propagate supersonically with detonation velocities in the range of km/s.
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