• Question: how can chemicals explode sometimes?

    Asked by spencer1x to Adam, Catherine, Karen, Leila, Nazim on 15 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Catherine Rix

      Catherine Rix answered on 13 Mar 2012:

      when two chemicals react with each other they usually release energy to the environment around them. If there is a lot of energy being released very quickly this can cause an explosion.

    • Photo: Leila Battison

      Leila Battison answered on 13 Mar 2012:

      Sometimes elements, molecules or compounds can have so much energy in them that they are unstable, and you need to be really careful not to let them get in contact with air or water, or they explode.

    • Photo: Adam Stevens

      Adam Stevens answered on 13 Mar 2012:

      An explosion is just a release of energy that has been confined. Because the elements in certain chemicals have quite a bit of energy stored in them if something causes that energy to be released then it causes an explosion.

      If you mean to ask whether chemicals can explode on their own, then some are so unstable that even the slightest input of energy will tip them over the edge and release all the stuff they have stored up.

      Most chemicals are fairly stable and so don’t do this, but some are so unstable that just touching them can make them explode (like Nitroglycerin).

    • Photo: Karen Masters

      Karen Masters answered on 13 Mar 2012:

      Explosions happen if energy will be released very quickly when chemicals react. When chemicals react they either use energy (endothermic I think is the word) or give it off (exothermic). If they give of energy in an uncontrolled way that can cause an explosion.

      I was never a big fan of chemistry in school – but it does come in handy sometimes. 🙂

    • Photo: Nazim Bharmal

      Nazim Bharmal answered on 15 Mar 2012:

      Chemicals are made up of atoms that are connected by bonds between them (so water is made up of bonds between two hydrogen atoms and a central oxygen atom). Sometimes you can rearrange the bonds so that there is less energy in them, which means the energy left over has to go somewhere. That energy can produce light (glow sticks) or can mean it gets gently warm (hand warmers) or very hot (when you burn wood or coal) or if it gets released really quickly, you get an explosion.

      Nuclear weapons work in a slightly different way, but with a similar principle: the bonds /inside/ atoms are broken and that energy is released instead of chemical bonds.

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