The Explosive Power of Chemicals
Explosions can be disastrous or useful, depending on when and how they happen. Any fast chemical reaction that produces lots of heat or a large volume of gas is potentially explosive. Its destructive power is due to the resulting shock waves. These are caused either by atmospheric expansion due to the rapidly released heat, or by the fast expansion of the gases produced.
The oldest explosive, gunpowder, is a low explosive whose shock waves travel at about a hundred metres a second. High explosives like TNT, trinitrotoluene, produce shock waves that travel up to six thousand metres a second.
Nitroglycerine is a liquid that explodes twenty-five times faster than gun powder. To make it safer to handle, the famous Swedish inventor, Alfred Nobel, soaked it in clay and called it dynamite.
A stronger explosive than gunpowder is ammonium nitrate, which is also used as a fertilizer. Normally it’s safe, because it has to be detonated before it will explode. However, careless handling of large quantities can cause massive explosions. For example, in 1947 a ship carrying this fertilizer exploded and levelled a huge area of Texas City, claiming five hundred and seventy-six lives.
So next time you drive through a tunnel, be thankful for the amazing power chemically stored in explosives.
It has often been pointed out that explosives (among other things) are morally neutral. Any moral judgement to be made is on the motive and use not on the power itself. The same energy that can destroy can be harnessed to be used constructively.
The same is true of aspects of the non-material realm. The attitude or behaviour may be morally neutral. What we need to consider is our motive and the purpose. For example many an institution has been saved by the dogged determination and perseverance of its leadership. At the same time, many an institution has been destroyed by the sheer stubbornness of its leadership. Many an institution has been sustained by careful daily scrutiny of financial transactions, and many an institution has been brought to its knees by the slavish devotion to routine and perfectionism. Many a stale institution has been given a new lease on life by the vibrant creativity of its younger members, and many a stale institution has lost its way following the dreams of inexperienced leadership.
Complicating all of this is the fact that our point-of-view often plays a significant role in evaluating certain attitudes or behaviours. Sometimes it seems that an institution must be totally destroyed before something new and better can take its place. Those committed to the old will lament, while those committed to the new will cheer – in the same set of circumstances.
Some people suffer horrific personal “explosions” – crises which at first blush seem to be wholly destructive. Yet sometimes, these crises (diagnosis of a terminal illness, infidelity of a spouse, the loss of a career, a child in trouble, and the like) prepare us for some serious introspection which leads the way to a whole new sense of direction and purpose.
This is particularly common in the spiritual realm. If we are looking for it, God will often buy back beauty out of the ashes of our lives. The things that have been most painful and discouraging may open doors that we would never have considered had the status quo remained.
Spiritual conversion is often accompanied by what is sometimes called a crisis of faith – the explosion that happens when values systems collide. The next time something really “bad” happens, look for the “good” that may be lurking in the shadows.
David Humphreys and Ron Hughes
© August 2004
