>>>That said, explosions are funny things - I was taught that the forces generated usually follow the path of greatest resistance, which is a bit counterintuitive. You can, for example, use explosives to fell trees: http://www.fs.fed.us/t-d/pubs/pdfpubs/pdf08672325/pdf08672325dpi72.pdf
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>>I was once told by the Ontario Fire Marshall, that there is technically no such thing as an explosion; only rapid burning. Although he did point out that if it was rapid enough that he couldn't outrun it, he'd be willing to accept the use of the word.
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>Tsk, tsk... the narrow-sighted specialist. Does he know there are explosions entirely without fire? Try boiling an egg in a microwave. Or an ampoule under a lens, using just sunshine.

Hey... he was a fire marshal. What does he know about non-fire stuff? Clearly, from his title, his job was strictly about arranging fires.