Comparison To Explosives
Though both news reporters and black-market dealers often make comparisons between the power of salutes and a particular quantity of dynamite ("1/4 stick" or "as powerful as a fourth of a stick of dynamite"), such comparisons are not grounded in reality. For reference, a typical stick of dynamite contains over 10 times more explosive material than an M-80 (35 grams of nitroglycerin versus 3 grams, typically of chlorate/sulfur powder). Nitroglycerin explodes with a shockwave faster than the speed of sound, whereas the powders used in various salutes deflagrate (burn) at a slower rate and below the speed of sound. This distinction is the difference between High Explosive and Low Explosive.
More to the point, dynamite undergoes detonation whereas flash powder in any quantity undergoes deflagration. Because flash salutes do not generate a detonation wave, they have a very low brisance and they do not exhibit the Munroe effect. For this reason, salutes are unsatisfactory for initiating the detonation of blasting agents.
Read more about this topic: Salute (pyrotechnics)
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