[Mitch]

What causes a high concentration of energy to be released in a short amount of time? Is it solely based on the nitrogen oxide to carbon ratio in a reaction?

For that class of explosives. For peroxide based explosives (e.g. triacetone peroxide) it would be the ratio of peroxide groups to carbon.

What renge ishyo said is correct in that it depends on what the products formed are. But as you're 17 and don't have a good feel for chemical reactions and it seems you want an answer that will give you the ability to be both predictive and comparable, I'm just trying to give some general rules of thumb that the explosives field uses anyways.

[BetaAmyloid]

But as you're 17 and don't have a good feel for chemical reactions and it seems you want an answer that will give you the ability to be both predictive and comparable, I'm just trying to give some general rules of thumb that the explosives field uses anyways.

Yeah, I think I am still in the textbook realm when it comes to finding answers - everything is theoretical and has an answer that doesn't depend on a specific situation. I am in AP Chemistry, I think we are starting to discuss the multitudes of exceptions that do not follow specific rules.

And you are right, I was looking for an answer that could be used to predict if something would explode, as if you could see it written down in a balanced equation, and answers that could be compared. I cannot yet understand that certain compounds do certain things in certain situations - it all depends! (But I'm learning.)