Well I have a chemistry project, and I chose to do a report on gun powder. Well unlucky me, but of the 20ish sites I visited I couldn't find a single site that gives me the formula for gun powder, only just different equations leading up to it, but never the final product or anything close to it.
So I was wondering if anyone knew a site I could possibly find this answer or if anyone knew offhand what it was.
"a mixture of potassium nitrate, charcoal, and sulfur in a 75:15:10 ratio which is used in gunnery, time fuses, and fireworks" I'd assume that this ratio is by weight.
potassium nitrate is KNO3
charcoal is " The residue, primarily carbon, from the partial combustion of wood or other organic matter." So mainly carbon, C.
sulphur is sulphur, S.
Gunpowder isn't made up of a single type of molecule, it is made up of a mixture of each of those components I mentioned. I hope that helps.
There are two main types of gunpowder, black powder and ballistite, or poudre B.
Black powder is a mixture of carbon, sulfur and potassium nitrate (KNO3). That's the stuff that's used in fireworks.
Ballistite and poudre B produce no smoke, and are used in artillery. It contains mixtures of 50% C6H8(NO2)2O5 (nitrocellulose) and about 50% C3H5N3O9 (nitroglycerine) or CH4N4O2 (nitroguanidine).
Hope that helps. :p