How much TNT is required to vaporize a human body?
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Ideally, when I die I want to be blown up; go out with a bang, you know? However, I wouldn't want chunks raining down on everyone.
How much TNT would I need to have secured for my funeral to completely destroy my body?
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According to Slashdot (Apparently they are still around), it takes 3 Gigajoules to completely vaporize a body.
According to online conversion calculators, it takes .72 tons of tnt to get 3 gigajoules.
As Renan pointed out, that's not great because the blast goes in all directions. But there are a few possibilities;
- A human is considerably smaller than a whale (for most humans and most whales). Definitely smaller than the sperm whale in the video.
- The video only used half a ton, not the almost three fourths of a ton that you'd need.
- We can improve things using shaped charges, which can be highly directional. Instead of having the explosion go in all directions, send the blast straight up through the body. This will minimize the crater and ensure more complete destruction of the body.
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