If my high school science class took field trips like the one I went on yesterday afternoon, I might have enjoyed class a bit more.

Yesterday Genda Chen and Jason Baird (experts in structures and explosives, respectively) invited me to join them for a trip out to a range at Fort Leonard Wood. I'll share more details about the research in another post, but suffice it to say, it's hard to beat an afternoon spent blowing things up.

Here's what I learned:

1. There's a lot of paperwork involved with transporting explosives.
2. C4 sort of smells like Play-Doh and motor oil.
3. Using "det cords" instead of detonators helps make the explosives fire all at once.
4. A sheet of fiber-reinforced polymer and a layer of rubber-like material can help strengthen and confine concrete columns so they don't disintegrate.
5. Blowing stuff up is fun (but really, I already knew that).