Now you have done it. You got me curious.
Long story short: I can't tell for sure which it is, but I am learning a lot, and asking people questions. BTW if you see me on the evening news, let them know that I
don't want to break anything.
Lets start with the qualitative.
The Chemical Engineers analysis is pretty weak. He is assuming that the response of plastic under high pressure is the same as metal, including at what pressure the plastic starts to fracture. He might have more evidence to support his case, but the way he presented it he is a Bad monkey.
Lets look at some explosions (because we can all appreciate a big boom) and we might learn something. Finding videos of Tannerite was easy. They ranged from 0.5 lb up to the video of the 100lbs that the dummy lit off. TNT in that weight range was harder to find.
1/2 lb tannerite
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Tannerite. Also looks like a half pound.
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Looks like 1/2 lbs Tannerite
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1kg of TNT (~2.2lbs)
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1.5lbs of TNT
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Keeping in mind there is 3-4x more TNT then Tannerite. It seems that the TNT has a sharper pressure wave, but is it more then 3-4x? The videos were fun to watch anyways.
I did some digging in the book "Introduction to the Technology of Explosives" and the main components of Tannerite are used in both blasting and propellants.
One of the components used is "a poor explosive by itself... but good when mixed with other explosives". This can be seen in an ANFO bomb like what was lit off at Oklahoma City. There the mix included nitromethene which for sure is a high explosive. So Tannerite could be high explosive.
The other components are an initiator and an oxidizer that is used in rocket motors (burns doesn't explode). This would seem to indicate that it is a low explosive.
When it is all said and don't I don't know enough chemistry to make a call one way or the other with the information I have.