[LMB] Talking of Rocket Ship Galileo OT:

[Mark Allums]

B. Ross Ashley wrote:
>> Let me rephrase that: rifles and pistols that were purchased
>> at the local hardware store shortly before Our Heroes took off,
>> with ammo ditto.
> 
> Mark Allums is correct, in his other reply to your original post, 
Marna; gunpowder contains its own oxidiser, and needs no atmospheric
oxygen to combust itself. (Guncotton, or nitrocellulose, "smokeless
powder", as in modern cartridges, is another kind of explosive, on the
order of nitroglycerin ... a specific sort of shock will set it off.)


Yes, and I should point out that modern smokeless powder is not really
a "gunpowder"  A gun may contain a substance that doesn't
necessarily "burn"  High explosives merely turn from solid or liquid to 
a gas really, really fast.  There can be flame, because it's a very 
rapid release of energy.

--Mark Allums