TNT

An abbreviated form, and the most common, to designate trinitrotoluene, a nitrate explosive, derived from toluene (a hydrocarbon), particularly powerful, with a chemical formula of C7H5(NO2)3. The power of atomic bombs is generally expressed by a TNT equivalent. We thus use the kiloton (1,000 tons of TNT) or the megaton (1,000,000 tons of TNT). The bomb dropped on Hiroshima had, for example, a power of around 15 kilotons, or 15,000 tons of TNT. The most powerful bomb ever tested, by the Soviet army, had a power of some 50 megatons, or the equivalent of 50 million tons of TNT.