A Dry ice bomb is a simple bomb made from a plastic bottle, water and dry ice. Generally either a 20oz or 2 litre plastic "soda" bottle is used. The bottle is filled about quarter full of water and a couple of dry ice cubes added, the cap screwed on tightly, and the area cleared. As the dry ice warms it sublimes, causing the pressure inside the bottle to increase and eventually explode the bottle, typically after several minutes. Often, the bottle will grow noticeably larger due to the extreme internal pressure before bursting.

The burst pressure of PET bottle varies, large bottles tend to have slightly lower burst pressures. A 2 liter bottle may burst anywhere from 140 - 180 psi. While in theory the amount of dry ice it takes to reach 180 psi in a two liter bottle is about 50g, or about 32cm^3, generally more would be used for safety, as it's dangerous for the bomb not to go off. The amount of energy released varies with altitude, size, burst pressure, volume of water used, and elasticity of the bottle. A two liter bottle will release between 9.2 and 15.2 kJ of energy at sea level, even more at higher altitudes. Because of this incredible amount of energy, a dry ice bombs are sometimes used as charges in simple homemade Dry Ice Cannons.
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