The Great Debate

[zjoere]

wouldn't you also need some kind of timing device for the bomb ?

[Xocrates]

wouldn't you also need some kind of timing device for the bomb ?

Like a big LED display with large red numbers counting down?

Why would a suicide bomber need a timer?

[Eat_The_Path]

If I'm not mistaken, some do. I remember a news story a while back about a suicide bomber in the middle east who missed his target because they had forgotten to take a time zone change into account when setting up his bomb. It's no stretch to me to think that they might not trust the bomber's nerve to hold out enough to allow them to always push that button, so with good logistics and timing, a clock makes some sense. That said, a big blinking digital display does not.

[zjoere]

wouldn't you also need some kind of timing device for the bomb ?

Like a big LED display with large red numbers counting down?
yep

Why would a suicide bomber need a timer?

I don't know shit about bombs bit i always assumed you'd need some kind of timer.


why didn't she just pulled out her laptop and made sure somebody saw the screen and then just went to :

http://www.thecleverest.com/countdown.swf

[Eat_The_Path]

You need a timer for a time bomb, but plenty of bombs. In the case of mail bombs, there is often a catch that sets off the bomb when it is opened. Land mines are a sort of bomb with a pressure trigger. Bombs can be detonated with the press of a button, either by remote or by wire. I seem to remember a story about bombs triggered by a cell phone call. So, no, bombs don't need to have a timer.

[Hyperion]

Simply put: You can detonate a bomb in anyway you can imagine of completing/breaking a circuit/current. The list is almost endless.

[zjoere]

what about the battery ?
would a battery have enough energy to power a bomb ?

[Hyperion]

what about the battery ?
would a battery have enough energy to power a bomb ?

Power a bomb? you only need to detonate it...you would only ever need some kind of battery or electrical current for circuitry, you could use chemical explosives (like your oh so nice example of the chewing gum from M.I ).

There are a thousand ways to cause an explosion using materials and not relying on electronics.

Bomb Structure

Explosives and Exothermic Reactions

[Cooper42]

If this is art...

Key word "if".

wwarnick

And it is...

The Mutt signed urinal is probably one of the most significant modern art pieces of the early 20th Century. Not in a technical manner, surely - but in what it conveys. The fact that it is considered art, and is valued above the costs of a standard urinal is precisely the point the artist was trying to make. Whether that be a criticism of the shallow art world (the price of a signature), or a criticism of the vacuity of modern art - or a celebration of the changing nature of art is to be debated.

At least in my books. And many, many, many others, it is still art.


The woman was surely stupid. If the artwork was actually designed to cause a scare, - there may be some justification there. I would not encourage it, but I wouldn't dismiss it entirely.

If it wasn't meant to cause a scare - then the stupidity makes the mind boggle.

[NeoThermic]

what about the battery ?
would a battery have enough energy to power a bomb ?

If only more "terrorists" were like you

C4, for example needs heat and pressure, not voltage to detonate. A blaster cap can be non-electric, electric or even my fave, the fuse cap. You also can use a detonator, which can be chemical, electrical or mechanical (a hand grenade, for example, uses a purely mechanical firing mechanism. It's also why there's some rare freak stories about people surviving a grenade attack due to a faulty grenade...)

On the inverse, some Acetone peroxide is majorly unstable. Nearly anything can trigger it from heat to friction to static to pressure. So anything forceful can detonate that.

If you wanted to really go out with a bang (pun intended), some pentaerythritol tetranitrate would be right in the books. It's main use is in detcord, but with enough of it in a single container (it's also unstable, so it'd be ill advised. Then again, if you're going to die, it doesn't quite matter..) you'd dish out some nasty stuff. Semtex B is about 94% PETN, and both are rated with an R. E. factor of 1.66 (i.e. 1.66 times as powerful as the equivalent mass of TNT).

At the top of the R. E. scale though has to be the 2.7 of Octanitrocubane. Shock resistant (so you could get around with this stuff), it's a nice 2.7 times as powerful as the equivalent mass of TNT. Lets put this into scale. The Lockerbie disaster was caused by 0.45kg of Semtex. For Octanitrocubane, you'd need only 0.276kg to do the same.

Hell, you could do an explosive bomb based purely on mechanical triggers. Many of these crude but powerful roadside explosives in Iraq are mechanical beasts.

It'd be best, though, that you don't question where my explosive knowledge comes from

NeoThermic

[mr_anonymous]

Mr. Thermic, we have been tracking your activities for some time now. Please be expecting my associates in black to appear at your doorway in the next five minutes. Thank you.