Reply #71: Pretty Far Fetched [View All]

[ProfessorGAC]

This is somewhat mythological, i would surmise. Sure, with enough oxidative potential, anything can be made to combust, if carbon is present in the structure.

But, remember the things that set apart detonatable materials are total bond energy, and bond length. The more energy contained per unit mass and the less total bond distance per mole, the more intensely and rapidly something can burn.

One other thing that distinguishes most explosive materials is an intrinsic supply of oxygen. That way, the combustion can happen with a minimum of external air or oxygen, meaning there is little to inhibit the burn.

Remember that an explosion is essentially something burning, very, very fast. In fact, explosive potential is measure in the meters per second of burn rate. So, no matter how much oxidizer one uses, there are organic components in the body that simply lack the intrinsic oxygen, lack the combustion potential (being far along in the oxidative states), and lack the inherent bond energy to burn at a rate sufficient to cause overpressure, even at the micro scale.

So, this is an extraordinarily unlikely scenario. There is nothing in the human body that even begins to approximate the bond energy per unit mass of gasoline, let alone a truly explosive organic.
The Professor