[oyez]

I wonder if iron oxide added the the ammonium nitrate-aluminum mix would give it a thermite effect. You know, burn a hole half way to China.

[HighWheeler]

I wonder if iron oxide added the the ammonium nitrate-aluminum mix would give it a thermite effect.

I was thinking of the same thing, and it may already have some iron in the mixture, but the iron acts only as a catalyst.

The propellant mixture in solid rocket fuel such as used on the Shuttle SRB motor consists of an ammonium perchlorate (oxidizer, 69.6 percent by weight), aluminum (fuel, 16 percent), iron oxide (a catalyst, 0.4 percent), a polymer (a binder that holds the mixture together, 12.04 percent), and an epoxy curing agent (1.96 percent), which is extremely flammable.

In fact the Hindenburg burned so strongly because the skin was a mixture or iron oxide and a heavy dose of aluminum powder, not because of the hydrogen.

This bomb is effectively solid rocket propellant allowed to ignite all at once.

[El Gato]

You know, burn a hole half way to China.

Wrong direction, if one is starting from Afgoneistan, China is just over the moutains to the east. Have to burn nearly horizontally to come out in China. Go straight down and you'd come out somewhere south and west of Easter Island in the South Pacific.

[FreeAtlanta]

they are already right next to China.

[Mr. K]

interesting question! what's your theory behind it?