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.
No way! PC has truly run amok.
To think. He could'a been a contenda!
Nice pictoral summary, Gramps!
J and S...maintainer in VF-171 lo so long ago, in 1980.
Darn. I want to see the gory ones. After what that scum did and gleefully videotaped, it wouldn't bother me a bit to see his corpse looking like the worst roadkill.
He just couldn't handle the pressure of the job.
TRUE, I swear it!!!
I know...I had the SAME thought.
Ding Dong, the Z Pig is dead!
The F4 was an impressive plane. I think the Marines used them until just a few years ago.
It was a pretty plane too. I had a unique opportunity 2 years ago. At A NATO school in Oberammergau Germany I met a German Major who was a former F4 pilot who before that was in the East German Air Force flying MIG21s. So this guy actually flew both platforms. According to him, the F4 was by far a superior platform. Although under certain conditions that MIG did have an advantage, over all the MIG was most of the time the under dog in air to air battle. That's something a friend of my dads’ and my dad also stated, both retired USAF and the friend of my dad was an F4 pilot. According to them, many of the F4 losses over Vietnam, (Where the F4 still had a huge kill ratio in its favor) were not due to the MIGs, but ADA (Flak and missiles). Vietnam at the time apparently had one of the largest amassed air defense networks world wide. In Linebacker II alone, over 2,000 missiles were fired. The MIGS would lure the Phantoms into the engagement envelope of the ADA. But that is just hearsay from people I know.
Yeah baby! Bring it on!
Absolutely. When all is said in done, they wish they never even thought about getting the big dog off the porch.
I wonder if he heard it coming........hopefully just for a few seconds?
Fear, he needed to know that - just as his victims who were beheaded were!
You must have a cool office!
Just tell me he died a horrible, agonizing death.
Just tell me he died a horrible, agonizing death.
I agree. Ha ha!
All the same, pray for your enemies--imagine if they converted to Christianity like Ann Coulter said.
Cheers!
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