TNT equivalent
Class of units of measurement for explosive energy
TNT equivalent is a convention for expressing energy, typically used to describe the energy released in an explosion. A ton of TNT equivalent is a unit of energy defined by convention to be 4.184 gigajoules. It is the approximate energy released in the detonation of a metric ton (megagram) of trinitrotoluene (TNT). In other words, for each gram of TNT exploded, 4.184 kilojoules of energy are released.
This convention intends to compare the destructiveness of an event with that of conventional explosive materials, of which TNT is a typical example, although other conventional explosives such as dynamite contain more energy.
A related concept is the physical quantity TNT-equivalent mass, expressed in the ordinary units of mass and its multiples: kilogram (kg), megagram (Mg) or tonne (t), etc.
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This entry incorporates text from “TNT equivalent” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.