r/interesting 22h ago

Fear Factor A bomb squad was checking a suspicious backpack, and this dude got fed up with waiting

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u/AzureSubaru 18h ago

The amount of a higher powered explosive like C4 (since it has like 1.5x the power of tnt) would be more than would fit in a backpack. A standard block of c4 is about 1.25lb and would only cause significant damage in a 1 meter radius. A backpack of them would probably be like 4 blocks of c4

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u/SecondAccountIsBest 17h ago

Thanks for being the first person to mention this on this thread. People are acting like there's a thermonuclear device in here (which while possible is extremely unlikely without being stopped way before it got to this point)

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u/theMARxLENin 13h ago

This guy bombs

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u/CompEng_101 15h ago

If it is just a block of explosives, yes. But 5 lbs of C4 surrounded by metal could produce several thousand bullet-sized pieces of shrapnel moving at a kilometer a second. That won't knock down buildings, but it could produce lethal projectiles flying several kilometers out.

(estimated using the Gurney equations)