Explosives
Gunpowder (or ‘black powder’) is a pyrotechnic mixture which burns at an extremely fast rate. This rate increases under pressure so that, when confined, gunpowder literally explodes. This is known as a deflagration.
The more powerful high-explosive materials are said to detonate, which is a different effect altogether and is brought about by the de-stabilisation of molecular structures. High explosives do not need to be confined, nor do they respond to initiation by fire. They must be triggered by small devices called detonators, which deliver a powerful shock setting off the process of de-stabilisation.
Their use
The majority of war scenes recorded outdoors rely on pyrotechnics for their explosions. However, there are occasions ...
Get Creating Special Effects for TV and Video, 3rd Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
