What is tnt

The mails carry letters every day that are so many packages of TNT should their contents be exploded by falling into wrong hands. You fought wars, and then bigger and better wars, until you couldn't be satisfied with gunpowder and TNT any longer. New Word List Word List. Save This Word! We could talk until we're blue in the face about this quiz on words for the color "blue," but we think you should take the quiz and find out if you're a whiz at these colorful terms.

Also called trinitrotoluene , trinitrotoluol, methyltrinitrobenzene , trotyl. Origin of TNT 1 First recorded in — TNT 2. Turner Network Television: a cable television channel.

What is TNT? Where does TNT come from? Did you know How is TNT used in real life? The Double Spy Dan T. Atoms, Nature, and Man Neal O. Clark and John F. Etiquette Emily Post. Marley's Chain Alan Edward Nourse. Short for trinitrotoluene. A yellow, crystalline compound used mainly as an explosive. As it can only explode by means of a detonator and is not affected by shock, it is safe to handle and is used especially in munitions and for demolitions.

Chemical formula: C 7 H 5 N 3 O 6. This is a common feature of most explosives; they invariably consist of many nitrogen or oxygen containing groups usually in the form of 2, 3 or more nitro-groups , attached to a small, constricted organic backbone. However, explosives like TNT, actually have less potential energy than gasoline, but it is the high velocity at which this energy is released that produces the blast pressure. This very high speed reaction is called a detonation.

The second fact that makes TNT explosive is that it is chemically unstable - the nitro groups are so closely packed that they experience a great deal of strain and hindrance to movement from their neighbouring groups. Thus it doesn't take much of an initiating force to break some of the strained bonds, and the molecule then flies apart.

Typically 1 gram of TNT produces about 1 litre of gas, which is a fold increase in volume. This expanding hot gas can be used to propel a projectile, such as a bullet from a gun, or for demolition purposes. There are a number of advantages that TNT has for ammunition manufacturers. Secondly, it is not too unstable - allowing it to be handled reasonably safely during manufacture and operation.

TNT will not spontaneously explode, and in fact can be treated quite roughly. In order to initiate the explosion, TNT must first be detonated using a pressure wave from another, more easily induced explosion from another explosive called a detonator. One such detonator is lead azide , Pb N 3 2 , which explodes when struck or if an electric discharge is passed through it. Plastic explosives have been around for a couple of decades.