Relative effectiveness factor - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Relative effectiveness factor or R.E. factor is a measurement of an explosive's power for military

Military

A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...

demolition

Demolition

Demolition is the tearing-down of buildings and other structures, the opposite of construction. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a building apart while carefully preserving valuable elements for re-use....

s purposes. It is used to compare an explosive's effectiveness relative to TNT by weight only. This enables engineers to substitute one explosive for another when they are calculating blasting equations that are designed for TNT. For example, if a timber cutting charge requires 1 kg of TNT to work, it would take 0.6 kg of PETN or 1.25 kg of ANFO to have the same effect.

R.E. factor examples

The bigger the R.E. number, the more powerful the explosive.

**Some R.E. factor examples**
Explosive, Grade	Density (g/cm³)	Detonation Vel. (m/s) Table of Explosive Detonation Velocities This is a list of the detonation velocities at specified density of various explosive compounds.The velocity of detonation is an important indicator for overall energy or power of detonation, and in particular for the brisance or shattering effect of an explosive.-References:*Cooper, Paul W.,...	R.E.
Ammonium nitrate (AN)	1.123	5270	0.42
Black powder Gunpowder Gunpowder, also known since in the late 19th century as black powder, was the first chemical explosive and the only one known until the mid 1800s. It is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate - with the sulfur and charcoal acting as fuels, while the saltpeter works as an oxidizer... (75% KNO₃ + 15% C + 10% S)	1.700	400	0.55
ANFO ANFO ANFO is a widely used bulk industrial explosive mixture. It consists of 94 percent porous prilled ammonium nitrate , that acts as the oxidizing agent and absorbent for the fuel — six percent Number 2 Fuel Oil... (94.3% AN + 5.7% fuel oil)	0.840	5270	0.80
Acetone Peroxide Acetone peroxide Acetone peroxide is an organic peroxide and a primary high explosive. It takes the form of a white crystalline powder with a distinctive bleach-like odor.... (TATP)		5300	0.83
TNT	1.654	6900	1.00
Amatol Amatol Amatol is a highly explosive material made from a mixture of TNT and ammonium nitrate. Its name originates from the words ammonium and toluene... (80% TNT + 20% AN)	1.548	6570	1.17
Tetrytol Tetrytol Tetrytol is a high explosive, comprising a mixture of Tetryl and TNT. Typically, the proportion of ingredients is approximately 70% tetryl and 30% TNT... (70% Tetryl + 30% TNT)	1.707	7370	1.20
Tetryl Tetryl 2,4,6-Trinitrophenylmethylnitramine commonly referred to as tetryl is a sensitive explosive compound used to make detonators and explosive booster charges....	1.73	7570	1.25
C-4 C-4 (explosive) C4 or Composition C4 is a common variety of the plastic explosive known as Composition C.-Composition and manufacture:C4 is made up of explosives, plastic binder, plasticizer and usually marker or odorizing taggant chemicals such as 2,3-dimethyl-2,3-dinitrobutane to help detect the explosive and... (91% RDX)	1.737	8040	1.34
C-3 (old RDX based)		7924	1.35
Composition B Composition B Composition B, colloquially "comp B", is an explosive consisting of castable mixtures of RDX and TNT. It is used as the main explosive filling in artillery projectiles, rockets, land mines, hand grenades, sticky bombs and various other munitions... (63% RDX + 36% TNT)	1.751	7800	1.35
Nitroglycerin	1.6	7700	1.50
Erythritol tetranitrate Erythritol tetranitrate Erythritol tetranitrate is an explosive compound chemically similar to PETN. It is however thought to be 1/3 more sensitive to friction and impact. ETN is not well known, but in recent years has been used by amateur experimenters to replace PETN in improvised detonation cord or in boosters to...	1.6	8100	1.60
RDX RDX RDX, an initialism for Research Department Explosive, is an explosive nitroamine widely used in military and industrial applications. It was developed as an explosive which was more powerful than TNT, and it saw wide use in WWII. RDX is also known as cyclonite, hexogen , and T4...	1.82	8750	1.60
Semtex Semtex Semtex is a general-purpose plastic explosive containing RDX and PETN. It is used in commercial blasting, demolition, and in certain military applications. Semtex became notoriously popular with terrorists because it was, until recently, extremely difficult to detect, as in the case of Pan Am... (94.3% PETN + 5.7% RDX)	1.776	8420	1.66
PETN PETN Pentaerythritol tetranitrate , also known as PENT, PENTA, TEN, corpent, penthrite , is the nitrate ester of pentaerythritol. Penta refers to the five carbon atoms of the neopentane skeleton.PETN is most well known as an explosive...	1.773	8400	1.66
HMX HMX HMX, also called octogen, is a powerful and relatively insensitive nitroamine high explosive, chemically related to RDX. Like RDX, the name has been variously listed as High Melting eXplosive, Her Majesty's eXplosive, High-velocity Military eXplosive, or High-Molecular-weight rdX.The molecular...	1.91	9100	1.70
HNIW (CL-20)		9380
DDF (4,4'-Dinitro-3,3'-diazenofuroxan 4,4'-Dinitro-3,3'-diazenofuroxan 4,4’-Dinitro-3,3’-diazenofuroxan is a powerful experimental high explosive with performance comparable to that of other high-density high-explosives such as octanitrocubane... )	2.02	10,000
Heptanitrocubane Heptanitrocubane Heptanitrocubane is a new experimental high explosive based on the cubic eight-carbon cubane molecule and closely related to octanitrocubane. Seven of the eight hydrogen atoms at the corners of the cubane molecule are replaced by nitro groups, giving the final molecular formula .As with...
Octanitrocubane Octanitrocubane Octanitrocubane is a high explosive that, like TNT, is shock-insensitive , not detonating even when struck by a hammer...	1.98	10,100	2.70
Nuclear weapon yield Nuclear weapon yield The explosive yield of a nuclear weapon is the amount of energy discharged when a nuclear weapon is detonated, expressed usually in the equivalent mass of trinitrotoluene , either in kilotons or megatons , but sometimes also in terajoules... (variable; see note)	19.1	>100,000	5.2M
Explosive, Grade	Density (g/cm³)	Detonation Vel. (m/s) Table of Explosive Detonation Velocities This is a list of the detonation velocities at specified density of various explosive compounds.The velocity of detonation is an important indicator for overall energy or power of detonation, and in particular for the brisance or shattering effect of an explosive.-References:*Cooper, Paul W.,...	R.E.

Note: Practical nuclear weapon

Nuclear weapon

A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...

s have reached from 400

Davy Crockett (nuclear device)

The M-28 or M-29 Davy Crockett Weapon System was a tactical nuclear recoilless gun for firing the M388 nuclear projectile that was deployed by the United States during the Cold War...

kg (TNTe

TNT equivalent

TNT equivalent is a method of quantifying the energy released in explosions. The ton of TNT is a unit of energy equal to 4.184 gigajoules, which is approximately the amount of energy released in the detonation of one ton of TNT...

)/kg up to 5,200,000

B41 nuclear bomb

The B41 was a thermonuclear weapon deployed by the United States Strategic Air Command in the early 1960s. It was the most powerful nuclear bomb ever developed by the United States with a theoretical maximum yield of 25 megatons...

kg (TNTe)/kg.

R.E. factor examples

See also