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Comment by fhub | Hacker News Reader

Shaped charge hidden in the battery casing. Sounds like batteries heated up which is consistent with one method that shaped charges could be detonated. No extra wires needed going into the battery (better concealment).

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Wouldn't a shaped charge be pointed in a specific direction, and hence could miss depending on the device's position in target's pocket?

You might prefer a shaped charge to reduce the likelihood of injuring bystanders and to ensure that what little explosive you can fit in there can kill whoever is using it.

Watching the grocery store security video, I think a multi-directional shaped charge is plausible with pressure evident in two directions. But very hard to draw any conclusions.

This is unlikely to be a shaped charge, there is not enough space. High explosives are inherently directional depending on the geometry of the explosive and point of detonation. As a practical matter of fitting explosives into a pager, I would expect most of the explosion to be directed perpendicular to the face of the pager in both directions. In almost all cases, carrying or using the pager would put the person directly on the main axis.

Yeah, everyone talking about shaped charges or (micro-) explosively formed penetrators seems to overlook the fact that, compared to just a regular bomb, they'd be less strictly effective for situations where you can't control the alignment of the charge to the target.

Don't overthink it - just a bit of RDX and a detonator does wonders.

Most high explosives need a high impact detonation source. You can literally set C4 on fire and it wont explode. It needs high temperature and pressure. And I do not think the 120F that a "hot" battery could get to reliably could trigger a high explosive in a way that wouldn't accidentally trigger beforehand. The middle east is a warm place.

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