[AdSimp]

great, so the good ol boys should be trying to get gasoline to explode as fast as dynamite does. I guess there is a reason why it doesn't.

[thackney]

Trinitrotoluene (TNT) already has the oxygen in the original molecule needed for combustion.

Fuels like diesel, gasoline, hydrogen need to be mixed with air for an oxygen source to take place.

[Squawk 8888]

Gasoline can make some pretty impressive booms if you do it right, but I won’t give the details here. You are correct about speed making the difference; high explosives don’t release much energy but they release it all nearly instantaneously.

[BwanaNdege]

Fuel/Air Explosive (FAE)

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/dumb/fae.htm

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/dumb/faeanim.gif