RE: [OT] I need a reality check

Jared Hilal wrote:

>I have been led to uderstand that the
shock-wave/blast-effect/overpressure 
>causes extensive soft tissue damage, even if body armor prevents 
>penetration traumas by fragments and other debris.

Very much so, yes. That's why thermobaric warheads (essentially a kind
of 
fuel-air explosives, but with a less politically-incorrect name) are 
becoming so popular nowadays; it is a lot harder to protect against
their 
blasts than against shrapnel from normal HEF warheads. I guess Storm 
Trooper-style fully enclosed armour would be able to protect against the

shock wave, but we're not quite there yet...

>Israeli doctors claim to be able to tell how large a blast was and how 
>close to it a given patient was by looking at damage to lungs and other

>organs caused by the pressure.

Both the size *and* the distance? Hm. That's impressive - lung damage 
depends fairly predictably on the strength (ie., energy density) of the 
shock wave, but that in turn diminishes with the distance so I would've 
guessed one *or* the other... but then again, they've got a lot of 
experience with blast damage :-(

Later,

Oerjan
oerjan.ohlson@telia.com

"Life is like a sewer.
  What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."
-Hen3ry