It is a six-inch long packet of the high explosive chemical called PETN, less than a half cup in volume, weighing about 80 grams.
A government test with 50 grams of PETN blew a hole in the side of an airliner. That was the amount in the bomb carried by the so-called shoe bomber Richard Reid over Christmas 2001.
The underpants bomb would have been one and a half times as powerful.
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