Topic summary
Primary explosives
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Explosive.
Primary
Primary explosives are often used in detonators or to trigger larger charges of less sensitive secondary explosives. Primary explosives are commonly used in blasting caps and percussion caps to translate a physical shock signal. In other situations, different signals, such as electrical or physical shock, or, in the case of laser detonation systems, light, are used to initiate an action, i.e., an explosion. A small quantity, typically milligrams, is sufficient to initiate a larger charge of explosive that is usually safer to handle.