In order to make the material dense enough to explode when the bomb is detonated, smaller explosions occur all around the outside of the material. All these little explosions push inward on the material in the center, causing it to implode.

Do implosion and explosion have similar effects?

One of the most common misconceptions is that people use implosion and explosion interchangeably. The key difference is that explosions direct force and energy from within the structure, outwards, whilst the goal of an implosion is to get the structure to collapse in on itself.

Can something implode and explode at the same time?

Answer 1: Intuition would tell us that if an implosion and explosion of equal force occurred at the same time, they would cancel each other out and not much would happen! ... In this context, the implosion is actually a controlled explosion (or controlled demolition) because explosives are used in the process.