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March 8, 2014
Table of Contents
1 Introduction
Gunpowder

Wikipedia

 
Gunpowder is a substance which burns very rapidly and is used as a propellant in firearms. There are two types:

  • Black powder—invented by the China|Chinese in the 9th Century—was the only widely-known and used practical explosive until the 20th Century. However, it is now primarily only used for fireworks, model rocket engines and in reproduction weapons.

  • Smokeless powder replaced black powder as a propellant at the end of the 19th Century and is used in all modern guns.


Both forms of gunpowder burn, producing a subsonic deflagration wave rather than the supersonic detonation wave which Explosive material#Classification by type of explosion|high explosives would produce. This reduces peak pressures in a gun, but makes it less suitable for shattering rock or fortifications. However, black powder was, for a couple centuries, the only blasting agent available.

Although historically gunpowder has meant black powder, as in the Gunpowder plot, modern references usually imply smokeless powder when referring to the propellant in small arms.

Gunpowder is also a sort of green tea.

sci-stub
Category:Explosives
Category:Firearm propellants
Category:Granular materials

da:Krudt
de:Schwarzpulver
es:P?lvora
ja:火薬
nl:buskruit
pl:Proch
sl:%C4%8Crni smodnik
fi:Ruuti
sv:Krut

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Gunpowder".


Last Modified:   2005-04-13


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