I was on a flight a while ago and reading a military thriller. The characters were pinned down in a house and have a block of C4 but no detonator. So a character strips a lamp cord, sticks the exposed end of the wire into the C4 and then plugs the other end of the cord into the wall, which detonates the C4.
That struck me as fairly suspect, and while I've heard references to 'electric detonators' before, I was under the impression that you needed a booster charge to make C4 explode.
Would running a current through a block of C4 actually do anything or was the author being a bullshitter?
It'd probably do nothing, might catch fire. Depends on how far apart the bared ends were.
An arc would just set the C4 aflame. too far apart, the plasticizer would act as an insulator.
Lucas Ortiz
Thats pretty much what det chord is. Not really the current so much as it is the blast cap like effect of a short circuit. 120v shorting out should be enough energy to start the c4
Nicholas Edwards
Nonsense. Detcord is PETN explosive in a sheath. You think an arc of common house current is somehow going to deliver sufficient energy to set off Comp B? An explosive you can shoot, with no effect?
It at best, would catch fire. You need a very big electric arc, to reach the brisance of detacord/primacord.
Bentley James
i hate people so much
#weLiveInASociety
Jayden Harris
You need a ‘shock wave’, as to how much current is needed, that might depend on the mixture...and I don’t know or have access to that info
No, the reason C4 is such a great explosive is it's very hard to set off. You can tear off a piece of it and light it on fire and all it will do is burn. Detonating it requires a blasting cap or a secondary explosive.
Lincoln Ramirez
>Can C4 be detonated by an electric current? technically. But not to any degree where it would occur accidentally. 120 or 240 volts (read: wall voltage) probably wouldn't be enough, and lamps don't use transformers.
Caleb Parker
>and I don’t know or have access to that info
A good approximation for initiator velocity is in the neighborhood of 22,000 feet per second.
Parker Perry
You'd need an arc that has the same concussive energy as the M6/M7 blasting cap, or a 2" section of at minimum, 50grain/foot detonating cord.
