Posted on 06/08/2006 2:31:15 PM PDT by Pukin Dog
One of the least understood phenomena of a bomb blast is overpressure. Everything in the blast perimeter is subject to a sudden and profound increase in air pressure. This wave of blast overpressure declines rapidly the further it travels. A person 10 feet from a bomb blast will experience nine times the overpressure of a person 20 feet away. But it gets messy and unpredictable. A person who happens to be standing between the bomb and a strong wall is subjected to more blast effect because solid surfaces reflect the blast wave.
You, as you read this, are subjected to normal air pressure of 15 pounds per square inch, depending on how close you are to sea level. The rapidly expanding gases of the bomb push the air out of the way generating air pressures of as much as 700 tons per square inch in the immediate area. But even on the outer perimeters of the blast area overpressures can be deadly.
The human body contains two principal air-filled spaces -- the lungs and the nasal cavity and attached sinuses. A human subjected to a bomb blast wave instantly has hundreds and perhaps thousands psi of pressure pushing on these cavities. A mere 15 psi above normal is considered the threshold for possible lung injury, so imagine what happens to those near the epicenter of a bomb blast.
The chest caves in. The lungs inside it are compressed violently in on themselves -- so violently that the entire network of pulmonary vessels connecting them to the heart and the rest of the body are sheared off.
When the instant of blast overpressure passes, the lungs suddenly re-expand, like a crushed rubber ball rebounding in the hand of a strong man. But now they are filled with a huge volume of blood, blood that should be flowing to the heart and other parts of the body.
Blood that would normally return to the heart through the left ventrical has now overwhelmed the lungs. No blood in the left ventrical equals no blood in the heart equals no pulmonary output to the body. Blood pressure -- zero. The body is instantly starved.
Up above, in the skull, at the same instant, the overpressure works in another way. The nasal and sinus cavities implode. That part of the skull called the cribiform plate ruptures, snaps and may be thrust upward into the base of the brain.
A fitting ending for the decapitator. It would only have been better if the blast pressure had ripped his head clean off and bounced it off the walls like a racketball.
The thought of that demon suffering such a horrific death makes my day even brighter. I hear that he was actually still clinging to life when found. I hope the last words he heard before entering hell were "President Bush sends his regards".
Well, they do have Al Frankenstein, ya know.
Just reading this cheers me up. Thanks!
This makes me all warm and fuzzy.
You can feel a pressure wave just standing next to somebody firing a highpowered rifle.
Thanks for the bio lesson.
Thanks for posting this information, PD!
Al Jazeera claims showing the photos of him dead is a violation of the Geneva Conventions! Now this is a sweet irony..how many times did they SHOW the tapes of beheadings, of dead GI's and on and on...and NOW they claim this?
The general who gave the briefing this morning in Iraq said there were a LOT gorier pics- but they CHOSE only to show the ones where they'd cleaned him up.
So did I. I love stories with warm and fuzzy endings. :O)
May he be greeted by 72 virgins...all looking like Helen Thomas of today.
Ah....a sweet sweet day for Goodness vs. Evil."
Try firing a hot .44 Mag in an indoor range ...
He looks better in that one. To me. :)
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