Bomb

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This article is about the explosive. For other uses, see Bomb (disambiguation).
"Bombing" redirects here. For artillery and aerial bombing, see Bombardment. For other uses,
see The Bombing (disambiguation).

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The Massive Ordnance Air Blast(MOAB) bomb produced in the United States is the second most powerful
conventional bomb in the world.

A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to
provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage
principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechanical stress, the impact and
penetration of pressure-driven projectiles, pressure damage, and explosion-generated
effects.[1] Bombs have been in use since the 11th century in Song Dynasty China.[2]
The term bomb is not usually applied to explosive devices used for civilian purposes such
as construction or mining, although the people using the devices may sometimes refer to them
as a "bomb". The military use of the term "bomb", or more specifically aerial bomb action,
typically refers to airdropped, unpowered explosive weapons most commonly used by air
forces and naval aviation. Other military explosive weapons not classified as "bombs"
include grenades, shells, depth charges (used in water), warheads when in missiles, or land
mines. In unconventional warfare, other names can refer to a range of offensive weaponry. For
instance, in recent Middle Eastern conflicts, bombs called "improvised explosive devices" (IEDs)
have been employed by insurgent fighters to great effectiveness.
The word comes from the Latin bombus, which in turn comes from the Greek
(bombos),[3] an onomatopoetic term meaning "booming", "buzzing".
 A "wind-and-dust" bomb depicted in the Ming Dynastybook Huolongjing. The pot contains a tube of
gunpowder, and was thrown at invaders.[4]

Contents
[hide]

1History
2Shock
3Heat
4Fragmentation
5Effects on living things
6Effects on structures
7Types
o 7.1Compressed gas
o 7.2Low explosive
o 7.3High explosive
o 7.4Thermobaric
o 7.5Nuclear fission
o 7.6Nuclear fusion
o 7.7Antimatter
o 7.8Other
8Delivery
9Blast seat
10See also
11References
12External links

History
See also: History of gunpowder
An illustration depicting early bombs thrown at Manchu assault ladders during the siege of Ningyuan, from
the book Thai Tsu Shih Lu Thu (Veritable Records of the Great Ancestor) written in 1635. The bombs are
known as "thunder-crash bombs."[5]

Explosive bombs were used in China in 1221, by a Jin dynasty army against a Song
Dynasty city. Bombs built using bamboo tubes appear in the 11th century.[2] Bombs made of cast
iron shells packed with explosive gunpowder date to 13th century China.[6] The term was coined
for this bomb (i.e. "thunder-crash bomb") during a Jin dynasty (11151234) naval battle of 1231
against the Mongols.[6] The History of Jin (compiled by 1345) states that in 1232, as the
Mongol general Subutai (11761248) descended on the Jin stronghold of Kaifeng, the defenders
had a "thunder-crash bomb" which "consisted of gunpowder put into an iron container ... then
when the fuse was lit (and the projectile shot off) there was a great explosion the noise whereof
was like thunder, audible for more than a hundred li, and the vegetation was scorched and
blasted by the heat over an area of more than half a mou. When hit, even iron armour was quite
pierced through."[6] The Song Dynasty (9601279) official Li Zengbo wrote in 1257
that arsenals should have several hundred thousand iron bomb shells available and that when he
was in Jingzhou, about one to two thousand were produced each month for dispatch of ten to
twenty thousand at a time to Xiangyang and Yingzhou.[6] The Ming Dynasty
text Huolongjingdescribes the use of poisonous gunpowder bombs, including the "wind-and-dust"
bomb.[4]
During the Mongol invasions of Japan, the Mongols used the explosive "thunder-crash bombs"
against the Japanese. Archaeological evidence of the "thunder-crash bombs" has been
discovered in an underwater shipwreck off the shore of Japan by the Kyushu Okinawa Society
for Underwater Archaeology. X-rays by Japanese scientists of the excavated shells confirmed
that they contained gunpowder.[7]

Shock
Explosive shock waves can cause situations such as body displacement (i.e., people being
thrown through the air), dismemberment, internal bleeding and ruptured eardrums.[8]
Shock waves produced by explosive events have two distinct components, the positive and
negative wave. The positive wave shoves outward from the point of detonation, followed by the
trailing vacuum space "sucking back" towards the point of origin as the shock bubble collapses.
The greatest defense against shock injuries is distance from the source of shock.[9] As a point of
reference, the overpressure at the Oklahoma City bombing was estimated in the range
of 28 MPa.[10]
Heat
A thermal wave is created by the sudden release of heat caused by an explosion. Military bomb
tests have documented temperatures of up to 2,480 C (4,500 F). While capable of inflicting
severe to catastrophic burns and causing secondary fires, thermal wave effects are considered
very limited in range compared to shock and fragmentation. This rule has been challenged,
however, by military development of thermobaric weapons, which employ a combination of
negative shock wave effects and extreme temperature to incinerate objects within the blast
radius. This would be fatal to humans, as bomb tests have proven.

Fragmentation
Main article: Fragmentation (weaponry)

An illustration of a fragmentation bomb from the 14th century Ming Dynasty text Huolongjing. The black
dots represent iron pellets.

Fragmentation is produced by the acceleration of shattered pieces of bomb casing and adjacent
physical objects. The use of fragmentation in bombs dates to the 14th century, and appears in
the Ming Dynasty text Huolongjing. The fragmentation bombs were filled with iron pellets and
pieces of broken porcelain. Once the bomb explodes, the resulting shrapnel is capable of
piercing the skin and blinding enemy soldiers.[11]
While conventionally viewed as small metal shards moving at super-
supersonic and hypersonic speeds, fragmentation can occur in epic proportions and travel for
extensive distances. When the S.S. Grandcamp exploded in the Texas City Disaster on April 16,
1947, one fragment of that blast was a two-ton anchor which was hurled nearly two miles inland
to embed itself in the parking lot of the Pan American refinery. Fragmentation should not be
confused with shrapnel, which relies on the momentum of a shell to cause damage.

Effects on living things

To people who are close to a blast incident, such as bomb disposal technicians, soldiers wearing
body armor, deminers or individuals wearing little to no protection, there are four types of blast
effects on the human body: overpressure (shock), fragmentation, impact and heat. Overpressure
refers to the sudden and drastic rise in ambient pressure that can damage the internal organs,
possibly leading to permanent damage or death. Fragmentation includes the shrapnel described
above but can also include sand, debris and vegetation from the area surrounding the blast
source. This is very common in anti-personnel mine blasts.[12] The projection of materials poses a
potentially lethal threat caused by cuts in soft tissues, as well as infections, and injuries to the
internal organs. When the overpressure wave impacts the body it can induce violent levels of
blast-induced acceleration. Resulting injuries may range from minor to unsurvivable. Immediately
following this initial acceleration, deceleration injuries can occur when a person impacts directly
against a rigid surface or obstacle after being set in motion by the force of the blast. Finally, injury
and fatality can result from the explosive fireball as well as incendiary agents projected onto the
body. Personal protective equipment, such as a bomb suit or demining ensemble, as well as
helmets, visors and foot protection, can dramatically reduce the four effects, depending upon the
charge, proximity and other variables.

Effects on structures
This section needs expansion. You
can help by adding to it. (June 2015)

Types

Diagram of a simple time bomb in the form of a pipe bomb

An American B61 nuclear bomb on its loading carriage

Unexploded unguided aerial bombwith contact fuse used by the Portuguese Air Force, Guinea-Bissau War
of Independence, 1974.

Experts commonly distinguish between civilian and military bombs. The latter are almost always
mass-produced weapons, developed and constructed to a standard design out of standard
components and intended to be deployed in a standard explosive device. IEDs are divided into
three basic categories by basic size and delivery. Type 76, IEDs are hand-carried parcel or
suitcase bombs, type 80, are "suicide vests" worn by a bomber, and type 3 devices are vehicles
laden with explosives to act as large-scale stationary or self-propelled bombs, also known
as VBIED (vehicle-borne IEDs).[citation needed]
Improvised explosive materials are typically very unstable[citation needed] and subject to spontaneous,
unintentional detonation triggered by a wide range of environmental effects ranging
from impact and friction to electrostatic shock. Even subtle motion, change in temperature, or the
nearby use of cellphones or radios, can trigger an unstable or remote-controlled device. Any
interaction with explosive materials or devices by unqualified personnel should be considered a
grave and immediate risk of death or dire injury. The safest response to finding an object
believed to be an explosive device is to get as far away from it as possible.
Atomic bombs are based on the theory of nuclear fission, that when a large atom splits it
releases a massive amount of energy. Hydrogen bombs use the energy from an
initial fission explosion to create an even more powerful fusion explosion.
The term dirty bomb refers to a specialized device that relies on a comparatively low explosive
yield to scatter harmful material over a wide area. Most commonly associated with radiological or
chemical materials, dirty bombs seek to kill or injure and then to deny access to a contaminated
area until a thorough clean-up can be accomplished. In the case of urban settings, this clean-up
may take extensive time, rendering the contaminated zone virtually uninhabitable in the interim.
The power of large bombs is typically measured in kilotons (kt) or megatons of TNT (Mt). The
most powerful bombs ever used in combat were the two atomic bombs dropped by the United
States to attack Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the most powerful ever tested was the Tsar
Bomba. The most powerful non-nuclear bomb is Russian "Father of All Bombs" (officially Aviation
Thermobaric Bomb of Increased Power (ATBIP))[13] followed by the United States Air
Force's MOAB (officially Massive Ordnance Air Blast, or more commonly known as the "Mother
of All Bombs").
Below is a list of five different types of bombs based on the fundamental explosive mechanism
they employ.
Compressed gas
Relatively small explosions can be produced by pressurizing a container until catastrophic failure
such as with a dry ice bomb. Technically, devices that create explosions of this type can not be
classified as "bombs" by the definition presented at the top of this article. However, the
explosions created by these devices can cause property damage, injury, or death. Flammable
liquids, gasses and gas mixtures dispersed in these explosions may also ignite if exposed to a
spark or flame.
Low explosive
The simplest and oldest type of bombs store energy in the form of a low explosive. Black
powder is an example of a low explosive. Low explosives typically consist of a composition of an
oxidizing salt, such as potassium nitrate, and solid fuel, such as charcoal or aluminum powder.
These compositions deflagrate upon ignition producing hot gas. Under normal
circumstances deflagration occurs too slowly to produce a significant pressure wave. Low
explosives must, therefore, be used in large quantities or confined in a container with a high burst
pressure to be used as a bomb.
High explosive
A high explosive bomb is one that employs a process called "detonation" to rapidly go from an
initially high energy molecule to a very low energy molecule.[14] Detonation is distinct from
deflagration in that the chemical reaction propagates faster than the speed of sound (often many
times faster) in an intense shock wave. Therefore, the pressure wave produced by a high
explosive is not significantly increased by confinement as detonation occurs so quickly that the
resulting plasma does not expand much before all the explosive material has reacted. This has
led to the development of plastic explosive. A casing is still employed in some high explosive
bombs, but with the purpose of fragmentation. Most high explosive bombs consist of an
insensitive secondary explosive that must be detonated with a blasting cap containing a more
sensitive primary explosive.
Thermobaric
A thermobaric bomb is a type of explosive that utilizes oxygen from the surrounding air to
generate an intense, high-temperature explosion, and in practice the blast wave typically
produced by such a weapon is of a significantly longer duration than that produced by a
conventional condensed explosive. The fuel-air bomb is one of the best-known types of
thermobaric weapons.
Nuclear fission
Nuclear fission type atomic bombs utilize the energy present in very heavy atomic nuclei, such as
U-235 or Pu-239. In order to release this energy rapidly, a certain amount of the fissile material
must be very rapidly consolidated while being exposed to a neutron source. If consolidation
occurs slowly, repulsive forces drive the material apart before a significant explosion can occur.
Under the right circumstances, rapid consolidation can provoke a chain reaction that can
proliferate and intensify by many orders of magnitude within microseconds. The energy released
by a nuclear fission bomb may be tens of thousands of times greater than a chemical bomb of
the same mass.
Nuclear fusion
Thermonuclear bomb is a type of nuclear bomb that releases energy through the fusion of the
light atomic nuclei of deuterium and tritium. With this type of bomb, a thermonuclear detonation is
triggered by the detonation of a fission type nuclear bomb contained within a material containing
high concentrations of deuterium and tritium. Weapon yield is typically increased with a tamper
that increases the duration and intensity of the reaction through inertial confinement and neutron
reflection. Nuclear fusion bombs can have arbitrarily high yields making them hundreds or
thousands of times more powerful than nuclear fission.
Antimatter
Antimatter bomb can theoretically be constructed but antimatter is very costly to produce and
hard to safely store.
Other

Aerial bomb
General-purpose bomb
Incendiary bomb
Incendiary bombs are designed to set targets ablaze.

Cluster bomb
Concrete bomb
Main article: concrete bomb
A concrete bomb is an aerial bomb which contains dense, inert material (typically concrete)
instead of explosive. The target is destroyed using the kinetic energy of the falling bomb.

Inert bomb
Main articles: Inert munitions and military dummy
An inert bomb is one whose inner energetic material has been removed or otherwise rendered
harmless. Inert munitions are used in military and naval training, and they are also collected and
displayed by public museums, or by private parties.
Typically, NATO inert munitions are painted entirely in light blue and/or have the word "INERT"
stenciled on them in prominent locations.[citation needed]

IED (barrel bomb, nail bomb, pipe bomb, pressure cooker bomb, fertilizer bomb, molotov
cocktail)

Delivery
A B-2 Spirit drops forty-seven 500 lb (230 kg) class Mark 82 bombs (little more than half a B-2's total
ordnance payload) in a 1994 live fire exercise in California

An F-15E Strike Eagle releasing 1 5,000 lb (2,300 kg) GBU-28 "Bunker Buster" during a test

The first air-dropped bombs were used by the Austrians in the 1849 siege of Venice. Two
hundred unmanned balloons carried small bombs although few bombs actually hit the city.[15]
The first bombing from a fixed-wing aircraft took place in 1911 when the Italians dropped bombs
by hand on the Turkish lines in what is now Libya, during the Italo-Turkish War.[16] The first large
scale dropping of bombs took place during World War I starting in 1915 with the
German Zeppelin airship raids on London, England, and the same war saw the invention of the
first heavy bombers. One Zeppelin raid on 8 September 1915 dropped 4,000 lb (1,800 kg) of high
explosives and incendiary bombs, including one bomb that weighed 600 lb (270 kg).[17]
During World War II bombing became a major military feature, and a number of novel delivery
methods were introduced. These included Barnes Wallis's bouncing bomb, designed to bounce
across water, avoiding torpedo nets and other underwater defenses, until it reached
a dam, ship or other destination where it would sink and explode. By the end of the war, planes
such as the allied forces' Avro Lancaster were delivering with 50 yd (46 m) accuracy from
20,000 ft (6,100 m), ten ton earthquake bombs (also invented by Barnes Wallis) named "Grand
Slam", which unusually for the time were delivered from high altitude in order to gain high speed,
and would upon impact penetrate and explode deep underground ("camouflet"), causing massive
caverns or craters, and affecting targets too large or difficult to be affected by other types of
bomb.
Modern military bomber aircraft are designed around a large-capacity internal bomb bay while
fighter bombers usually carry bombs externally on pylons or bomb racks, or on multiple ejection
racks which enable mounting several bombs on a single pylon. Some bombs are equipped with
a parachute, such as the World War II "parafrag", which was an 11 kg (24 lb) fragmentation
bomb, the Vietnam war-era daisy cutters, and the bomblets of some modern cluster bombs.
 Parachutes slow the bomb's descent, giving the dropping aircraft time to get to a safe distance
from the explosion. This is especially important with airburst nuclear weapons, and in situations
where the aircraft releases a bomb at low altitude.[18] A number of modern bombs are
also precision-guided munitions, and may be guided after they leave an aircraft by remote
control, or by autonomous guidance.
A hand grenade is delivered by being thrown. Grenades can also be projected by other means,
such as being launched from the muzzle of a rifle, as in the rifle grenade or using a grenade
launcher such as the M203 or by attaching a rocket to the explosive grenade as in a rocket-
propelled grenade (RPG).
A bomb may also be positioned in advance and concealed.
A bomb destroying a rail track just before a train arrives causes a train to derail. Apart from the
damage to vehicles and people, a bomb exploding in a transport network often also damages,
and is sometimes mainly intended to damage that network. This applies
for railways, bridges, runways, and ports, and to a lesser extent, depending on circumstances, to
roads.
In the case of suicide bombing the bomb is often carried by the attacker on his or her body, or in
a vehicle driven to the target.
The Blue Peacock nuclear mines, which were also termed "bombs", were planned to be
positioned during wartime and be constructed such that, if they were disturbed, they would
explode within ten seconds.
The explosion of a bomb may be triggered by a detonator or a fuse. Detonators are triggered
by clocks, remote controls like cell phones or some kind of sensor, such as pressure
(altitude), radar, vibration or contact. Detonators vary in ways they work, they can be electrical,
fire fuze or blast initiated detonators and others,

Blast seat
In forensic science, the point of detonation of a bomb is referred to as its blast seat, seat of
explosion, blast hole or epicenter. Depending on the type, quantity and placement of explosives,
the blast seat may be either spread out or concentrated (i.e., an explosion crater).[19]
Other types of explosions, such as dust or vapor explosions, do not cause craters or even have
definitive blast seats.[19]

See also

Weapons of mass destruction portal

Glide bomb
List of bombs
The Bomb (film)

References
1. Jump up^ Milstein, Randall L. (2008). "Bomb damage assessment". In Ayn Embar-seddon, Allan
D. Pass (eds.). Forensic Science. Salem Press. p. 166. ISBN 978-1-58765-423-7.
2. ^ Jump up to:a b Peter Connolly (1 November 1998). The Hutchinson Dictionary of Ancient and
Medieval Warfare. Taylor & Francis. p. 356. ISBN 978-1-57958-116-9.
3. Jump up^ , Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
4. ^ Jump up to:a b Joseph Needham (1986). Military Technology: The Gunpowder Epic. Cambridge
University Press. pp. 189190. ISBN 978-0-521-30358-3.
 5. Jump up^ Joseph Needham (1974). Science and Civilisation in China: Military technology : the
gunpowder epic. Cambridge University Press. p. 191. ISBN 978-0-521-30358-3.
6. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Needham, Joseph. (1987). Science and Civilization in China: Volume 5,
Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Part 7, Military Technology; the Gunpowder Epic.
Cambridge University Press. pp. 170174.
7. Jump up^ Delgado, James (February 2003). "Relics of the Kamikaze". Archaeology.
Archaeological Institute of America. 56 (1).
8. Jump up^ Mlstein, Randall L. (2008). "Bomb damage assessment". In Ayn Embar-seddon, Allan
D. Pass (eds.). Forensic Science. Salem Press. p. 166. ISBN 978-1-58765-423-7.
9. Jump up^ Marks, Michael E. (2002). The Emergency Responder's Guide to Terrorism. Red Hat
Publishing Co., Inc. p. 30. ISBN 1-932235-00-0.
10. Jump up^ Wong, Henry (2002). "Blast-Resistant Building Design Technology Analysis of its
Application to Modern Hotel Design". WGA Wong Gregerson Architects, Inc. p. 5.
11. Jump up^ Joseph Needham (1986). Military Technology: The Gunpowder Epic. Cambridge
University Press. pp. 180181. ISBN 978-0-521-30358-3.
12. Jump up^ Coupland, R.M. (1989). Amputation for antipersonnel mine injuries of the leg:
preservation of the tibial stump using a medial gastrocnemius myoplasty. Annals of the Royal
College of Surgeons of England. 71, pp. 405408.
13. Jump up^ Solovyov, Dmitry (2007-09-12). "Russia tests superstrength bomb, military says".
Reuters. Retrieved 2008-06-02.
14. Jump up^ "Ring Strain in Cycloalkanes". Orgo Made Simple. Archived from the original on 22
June 2015. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
15. Jump up^ Murphy, Justin (2005). Military Aircraft, Origins to 1918: An Illustrated History of their
Impact. ABC-CLIO. p. 10. ISBN 1-85109-488-1. Retrieved 2008-05-26.
16. Jump up^ Lindqvist, Sven (2004). "Guernica". Shock and Awe: War on Words. published by Van
Eekelen, Bregje. North Atlantic Books. p. 76. ISBN 0-9712546-0-5. Retrieved 2008-05-26.
17. Jump up^ Wilbur Cross, "Zeppelins of World War I" page 35, published 1991 Paragon House
ISBN I-56619-390-7
18. Jump up^ Jackson, S.B. (June 1968). "The Retardation of Weapons for Low Altitude Bombing".
United States Naval Institute Proceedings.
19. ^ Jump up to:a b Walsh, C. J. (2008). "Blast seat". In Ayn Embar-seddon, Allan D. Pass
(eds.). Forensic Science. Salem Press. p. 149. ISBN 978-1-58765-423-7.

External links
Wikimedia Commons has
media related to Bombs.

Explosive Violence, The Problem of Explosive Weapons A report by Richard Moyes

(Landmine Action, 2009) on the humanitarian problems caused by the use of bombs and
other explosive weapons in populated areas
FAS.org Bombs for Beginners
MakeItLouder.com How a bomb functions and rating their power

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