this post was submitted on 02 Jan 2024
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Apparently it's a lot like what fireworks sound like
They do. In fact, guns were initially invented by modifying fireworks. Obviously some guns and some fireworks are very distinctive, but generally they sound very similar
I would assume they sound similar because they both use quantities of what is commonly referred to as "gun powder" as an accelerant. Aka "black powder, aka saltpeter+sulfur+charcoal.
It's just a highly combustible material combined with an oxidizer.... Same as per much anything we burn, just in powder form. Give it a spark and kaboom!
I'm pretty sure that's very similar in nature to TNT, though different chemicals are used in a different process. Black powder is really very simple by comparison. The big thing with TNT is that there's quite a lot of it in a single tube of the explosive. With black powder, it's simply combining the dry ingredients carefully, until thoroughly mixed, not dissimilar to how you would mix flour, sugar, and baking powder to make a cake.... Though, if your cake explodes, you probably did it wrong.
Volatile substances are fascinating!
Fun fact for you. Modern firearms haven't used black powder for a very long time, that's why when people fire rifles you don't see huge clouds of smoke
There are also many kinds of gunpowder, rifles use different powders to say shotguns or pistols. Although often times shotgun and pistol ammunition uses the same class of powder (slower burn rate iirc)