In one of their most Mythbusters-like videos ever, the Slow Mo Guys ask: can an explosion deflect a bullet? To find out, they built out a system to trigger a Keep reading
Tag: blast wave
Underwater Explosions and Submarines
In the early days of submarines, it did not take physicists and engineers long to discover how destructive underwater explosions can be. In this Slow Mo Guys video, Gav gives Keep reading
Mimicking Supernovas
The Hubble archives are full of incredible swirls of cosmic gas and dust, many of which were born in supernovas. Predicting the forms these massive explosions will generate is extremely Keep reading
Lighting Engines
Combustion is complicated. You’ve ideally got turbulent flow, acoustic waves, and chemistry all happening at once. With so much going on, it’s a challenge to sort out the physics that Keep reading
Underwater Explosions in Slow Mo
The Slow Mo Guys bring their high-speed skills to underwater explosions in this new video. The physics of such explosions is very neat (but also incredibly destructive). When the fuse Keep reading
Why Fishing with Dynamite is So Harmful
In some countries, there are still people using dynamite to catch fish. This practice is incredibly destructive, not just to adult fish but to the entire marine ecosystem. A blast Keep reading
Blast Waves Visualized
Typically, shock waves are invisible to the human eye. Using sensitive optical techniques like schlieren photography, researchers in a lab can visualize sharp density gradients like shock waves or even Keep reading
Putting Out Wildfires Using Explosives
Wildfires damage millions of acres of land per year in the United States alone. Using explosives to put out an uncontrolled wildfire sounds a bit crazy, but it’s actually not Keep reading
Explosions Underwater
Underwater explosions are, in general, much more dangerous than those in air. This video shows an underwater blast at 30,000 fps. During the initial blast, a hot sphere of gas Keep reading
Surface Explosions
Underwater explosions often behave non-intuitively. Here researchers explore the effects of surface explosions by setting off charges at the air/water interface. Initially, an unconfined explosion’s blast wave expands a cavity Keep reading