ABSTRACT
Explosives are further classi‡ed into high and low explosives, which are dižerentiated on the basis of their means of propagation of the explosive reaction through the material. High explosive reactions progress by a shock wave, and their velocity is de‡ned as progressing at higher than the speed of sound in the undetonated material. Low explosive reactions progress by grain burning, and the reaction speed is at less than the speed of sound in the explosive medium. Other classi‡cations designated by government agencies for storage, transportation, or other activities, such as “high explosive” and “blasting agent,” which have to do with the magnitude of the impetus necessary for their initiation, do not change the fact that they are both high explosives.
