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Strange. I did some research and found some numbers.

The energy density of Kit Kat is 22 MJ/Kg (5.2 Kcal/g) http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%28Kit+Kat+calories+to+...

TNT has 2.8 MJ/Kg in an explosion and 4.2 MJ/Kg in a combustion. It has too much Carbons. In an explosion, it doesn’t react with the oxygen in the air, because it’s too fast. There is an interesting discussion in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinitrotoluene#Energy_content

In general, the explosives have to explode without using the Oxygen in the air, so they have a lot of Oxygen and Nitrogen atoms inside. The fuels for slow combustions can have almost only Carbon and Hydrogen atoms to store the energy more efficiently and get the Oxygen from the air.

Nitroglycerin has less Carbons, so has more energy density. Mixed in dynamite has 7.5 MJ/Kg and alone has 6.4 MJ/Kg (Is this correct? I expected a bigger value).

I found a list of these values for a wide range of materials. In particular it says that green wood has 10 MJ/Kg, air dry wood has 15 MJ/Kg and oven dry wood has 20 MJ/Kg. http://physics.info/energy-chemical/

Other values: Gasoline ~45 MJ/Kg, Methane 55.5 MJ/Kg, Hydrogen 142 MJ/Kg




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