CGSociety digs back into the Vault to bring us a great lengthy piece by Kieron Helsdon on the Anatomy of Explosions.
Explosions can be natural or artificial – simply defined as a sudden release of energy. This release produces a sudden expansion of the material accompanied by large changes in pressure, typically with a flash or loud noise, which is called the explosion. Explosions cause pressure waves in the local medium in which they occur. These pressure waves are called deflagrations if they are subsonic and detonations when supersonic. An example would be gunpowder in a firearm or fuel in an internal combustion engine. Deflagrations are easier to control than detonations – when the goal is to move an object (a bullet in a gun, or a piston in an engine) with the force of the expanding gas.
