Re: [GZG] Gzg-l Digest, Vol 37, Issue 24

John Atkinson wrote:

>How effectively do explosions propagate in a vacuum? I don't have a 
>PhD in the subject, but the practical experience I have with 
>explosives suggests that past the immediate vicinity of the 
>explosives (immediate vicinity being roughly relative to the square 
>root of the quantity of explosives), much of the damage is done by 
>shock wave -- which energy transmitted by compression of air.	No 
>air, no shock wave.

For normal explosives, you're spot on. While the explosives do 
generate a certain amount of gas of their own, it rarefies *very* 
rapidly when there's no atmosphere for the blast wave to propagate into.

For nukes, you've got a radiation wave that will do Nasty Things to 
whatever it hits... but nukes tend to be tricky to set off even on 
purpose; they're far harder still to set off by accident :-/

>So explosions would be really destructive on that ship,

...unless you evacuate/attenuate the onboard atmosphere when clearing 
the ship for action in order to reduce the potential for blast damage...

/Oerjan

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