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Explosions in movies

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is it possible to be "invisibally smacked" from an explosion?IE- MI3 Cruise gets slammed into a car, falls down, and gets back up running. To me, its impossible. Im sure an explosion makes impact with air causing a "jolt" but i would imagine that jolt would be apart of the combustion, meaning intense heat would follow such a jolt.

 

So am i correct that Tom Cruise would have been charred when he was slammed into the car? I just want to clarify, thanks!

Yes, there is a shockwave from explosions, but the heat all depends on what is exploding. And I'm not a Tom Cruise fan so I don't think I'll be able to find out anytime soon;)

is it possible to be "invisibally smacked" from an explosion?IE- MI3 Cruise gets slammed into a car' date=' falls down, and gets back up running. To me, its impossible. Im sure an explosion makes impact with air causing a "jolt" but i would imagine that jolt would be apart of the combustion, meaning intense heat would follow such a jolt.

 

So am i correct that Tom Cruise would have been charred when he was slammed into the car? I just want to clarify, thanks![/quote']

 

yer u can be smacked by an explosion, but i would say if an explosion that great that was able to throw him in a such way that his slamed on the car then i would say he wouldnt be alive

From what I've seen (the last three seconds of the trailer)

 

I think what projects him is probably the shock of the impact

(and that solely).

 

Its a movie so its over exaggerated anyway. Maybe, since the impact was so close, along with the actual physical shockwave was the mental shock that confused him (he was running away and stumbled massively)

  • Author

I still can't see somebody just being "Thrown" from an explosion. A good link to the effects of explosions would be much appreciated!

I still can't see somebody just being "Thrown" from an explosion. A good link to the effects of explosions would be much appreciated!

 

Well, put it this way - the shockwaves are powerful and if your close by then it will throw you with little problem.

 

What type of effect do you mean? How they make them, effects of explosions on the body...?

 

Cheers,

 

Ryan Jones

There are explosives that release surprisingly low amounts of heat from just the chemical reaction itself, still having gaseous end products of great volume (which leads to the shockwave effect). IIRC a good example is sodium azide which is used in airbags. However, in movies these invisible smack thingies are done with harnesses and digital editing almost without exception.

 

Why are there "explosive reactions" that don't release much heat then? Think of a chemical system having two goals; lesser enthalpy and greater entropy. Sometimes it's "better" for the system to go for a massive increase of entropy at the cost of a small increment in enthalpy. These reactions are sometimes quite endothermic.

 

Edit: Of course, when a small container is suddenly filled with loads of gas it doesn't really matter if the original reaction was endothermic, you'll end up with loads of heat due to the immense pressure anyway.

  • Author
There are explosives that release surprisingly low amounts of heat from just the chemical reaction itself' date=' still having gaseous end products of great volume (which leads to the shockwave effect). IIRC a good example is sodium azide which is used in airbags. However, in movies these invisible smack thingies are done with harnesses and digital editing almost without exception.

 

Why are there "explosive reactions" that don't release much heat then? Think of a chemical system having two goals; lesser enthalpy and greater entropy. Sometimes it's "better" for the system to go for a massive increase of entropy at the cost of a small increment in enthalpy. These reactions are sometimes quite endothermic.

 

Edit: Of course, when a small container is suddenly filled with loads of gas it doesn't really matter if the original reaction was endothermic, you'll end up with loads of heat due to the immense pressure anyway.[/quote']

 

Ok yes i understand that.. But i'm thinking in terms of missles, rockets etc that must generate large amounts of heat. The explosion that hit TOm Cruise was from a vehicle exploding from a missle

Yeah, what Cap'n said. I'm quite sure the smacking thing was done with harnesses. It's very often digital these days when it comes to effects on actors/actresses themselves, which of course helps to save them from nasty bone fractures. :) Of course, even the harness stuff can be physically tough but at least they're not getting thrown by an actual shockwave against metal etc.

  • Author
Yeah, what Cap'n said. I'm quite sure the smacking thing was done with harnesses. It's very often digital these days when it comes to effects on actors/actresses themselves, which of course helps to save them from nasty bone fractures. :) Of course, even the harness stuff can be physically tough but at least they're not getting thrown by an actual shockwave against metal etc.

 

 

Im just using Tom Cruise as an example. I don't care much for how it was done via camera. I'm comparing the movie to real life, and what would actually happen.

 

Explosions are from combustion, and combustion generates heat. This is where im aiming at

As I said, there can be a huge volume of gaseous end products without any heat generation from the reaction at all. I'd imagine if you stood right next to an (unconfined) large scale reaction of this sort you'd just be knocked back by the expanding gases.

Typically speaking, however, if an explosion has enough energy to knock you back, typically that energy would instead rip you apart internally and make you dead.

Im just using Tom Cruise as an example. I don't care much for how it was done via camera. I'm comparing the movie to real life' date=' and what would actually happen.

 

Explosions are from combustion, and combustion generates heat. This is where im aiming at[/quote']An explosion traveling at supersonic speeds is going to compress the air in front of it, the shockwave others mentioned. It might travel beyond the range of an accompanying fireball, knocking Mr. C down without engulfing him in flames and heat.

 

I'm not sure I can see that happening from a car exploding, though. Unless it was it a *Cruise* missile that hit the car. :D

Explosives act on flesh like hitting a water balloon with a baseball bat. If you have enough force to project the body a decent distance the body seperates into pieces and alot of the energy is lost. The things that travel are things that can withstand the shock, eg. the axle from the Bali car bomb travelled about a hundred feet onto a roof.

  • Author
Explosives act on flesh like hitting a water balloon with a baseball bat. If you have enough force to project the body a decent distance the body seperates into pieces and alot of the energy is lost. The things that travel are things that can withstand the shock, eg. the axle from the Bali car bomb travelled about a hundred feet onto a roof.

 

 

Ok so are you saying im right? That a missle that explodes a car would rip anyone in near vicinity to shreds before slamming you against a car?

 

Thanks

Ok so are you saying im right? That a missle that explodes a car would rip anyone in near vicinity to shreds before slamming you against a car?

 

Thanks

 

The explosion would cause pieces of car to be removed and thrown with a hell of a lot of force and energy shredding the person, then we have the shock wave that would tear the body appart inside... its like a crash, its not the actuall crash that kills you - its the stopping :)

 

Cheers,

 

Ryan Jones

Hmm anyone se Legend of Zorro how they exaggurated so much of Nitroglycerin's ablitiy. like how woulld a drop of NG explode on the top of the guys head, the worst thing that would do is give him rather a bad nitro headache as it gets absorbed in to the skin.

'']Hmm anyone se Legend of Zorro how they exaggurated so much of Nitroglycerin's ablitiy. like how woulld a drop of NG explode on the top of the guys head, the worst thing that would do is give him rather a bad nitro headache as it gets absorbed in to the skin.

 

Or better a film called vertical limit, since when is NG red for one? Also, they say its so unstable that light would detonate it...

 

Cheers,

 

Ryan Jones

Any concusion wave capable of lifting the guy off the floor like that would have ripped his lungs to shreds!

even the old plug your ears and open your mouth (to equalise pressure) technique wouldn`t have worked.

 

Myth Busted! :P

  • Author
Any concusion wave capable of lifting the guy off the floor like that would have ripped his lungs to shreds!

even the old plug your ears and open your mouth (to equalise pressure) technique wouldn`t have worked.

 

Myth Busted! :P

 

There we go! Thanks! <3

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