If you are near an Explosion?

Question

I recall hearing a fact that if you are near a bomb when it goes off you are supposed to lie down. Cover your ears, and open your mouth.

Covering ears and opening mouth keeps your eardrums from being ruptured.

Is this correct?

Can anyone affirm this information?

Oh, for the knowing when it is to occur...

Either A) You planted the bomb, and are not to far off

OR

B) You hear "Allah Hu Akbar" in a public area

(No, I'm not being prejudice or anything, that's just what suicide bombers yell before they detonate)

Answer 1

I am pretty sure that is correct...
What causes ear drums to burst is a shock wave which can be caused by an explosion. There are two tubes that lead from the region behind the eardrum and into your mouth. I suspect that if your mouth is closed, the air trapped behind the eardrum and in your mouth can cause your eardrums to burst, much like a balloon. If you open your mouth and cover your ears you lessen the effect and provide a way for this air to escape.
Also good to note: an eardrum bursting will almost never cause permanent deafness... a small hole may be formed in the eardrum, but this typically heals, albeit slowly. If it happens multiple times, however you may lose your hearing.

Answer 2

The problem is knowing that the explosion is about to occur in order to take those precautions. Usually it has blown you down or over, if it is within a hundred yards and large, before you even know it has exploded. Being on the ground or below it and having your head protected are desirable.
Edit:
Example of the chaos created by being near an explosion. I had been under fire several times by the time I was in Vietnam for a few weeks. I was a young 1st Lt leading a LRRP patrol in the Parrots Beak area of the Delta with about 7-8 other guys that day. We were walking along a raised rice patty dyke very early in the morning. In my peripheral vision toward my front left I saw "something" and almost before I could do anything an RPG detonated about 20 feet in front of me. Even though warned to not dive for cover, I dove away from the explosion into the side of the dyke opposite the explosion, maybe while the explosion was expanding, maybe slightly before. I remember hearing the 'blip-blip" of shrapnel going over my head. It happens very fast. Almost simultaneous to the explosion someone behind me fired an M79 and some automatic weapon fire toward the enemy. I felt a "sting" on my left collar bone and figured I had been hit. After things cooled off the medic looked. I had dived onto a pungy stake. However the left side of my flak jacket, which I had hated, had bent it over but it went under the right side (cause I had not fully zipped and snapped the damn thing closed) and only went in about half an inch and broke off. He got it out, washed the wound out, bandaged it and we went on our way. Point is: you don't know what will happen even if well trained and expecting a 'problem'. My advice, if you have any kind of warning, is to dive behind anything substantial, cover your head, hope for the best and pray that you are lucky that day. War and acts of violence are absolute chaos multiplied by infinity squared. Nothing you do correctly or incorrectly will save you in any given situation.

Answer 3

If you're close enough for the blast to rupture your eardrums, you have way more pressing concerns like frag, secondary frag, and concussion.

You will not have time to react if you are that close to a detonantion. This is why you should always be aware of your surroundings and be near some sort of cover at all times.

You should already have ear and eye protection in place anyhow, so the only measure you can take is get behind cover, wait for the secondary frag to cease, and watch out for secondary devices.

And no, you won't always hear "Allah Akbar".

Answer 4

It is time that the Golden Shrine of Samarra was restored. This could be a symbol to all these so called 'insurgents'. ALL the clerics MUST condemn the killers or Islam will become a sham! It is NOT seen as a religion of peace, but one of intolerance and indiscriminate murder, no matter how many whining moderates say otherwise and do NOTHING! The anti Cartoon demonstrators showed the intolerance and one answer for all 'offences against Islam' approach of these minority factions.

Answer 5

See here is my advice. If you are near a bomb do not lie down open your mouth and cover your ears... RUN THE HEACK AWAY FROM THE BOMB!

Answer 6

No! Every few feet you can put between you and the explosive device is important. Don't lay down! Keep running.

Answer 7

You wouldnt know when it was going off unless you the bomber.

Answer 8

Sounds like a way to lose teeth or a tounge from shrapnel

Answer 9

This is what my brother was told before he went to Iraq.

Answer 10

You run away!