In the present study, a relationship is proposed that is capable of predicting the output of the plate dent test. It is shown that the initial density ; condensed phase heat of formation ; the number of carbon (C), nitrogen (N), oxygen (O); and the composition molecular weight (MW) are the most important parameters needed in order to accurately predict the absolute dent depth produced on 1018 cold-rolled steel by a detonating organic explosive. The estimated values can be used to predict the detonation pressure (P) of high explosives; furthermore, we show that a correlation exists between and the Gurney velocity parameter. The new correlation is used to accurately estimate for several C-H-N-O explosive compositions.