The results are tabulated and analyzed via Bruceton analysis, a simple computation of sums that can be performed by pencil and paper, to provide estimates of the mean and standard deviation.
Bruceton analysis has an advantage over the modern techniques being very simple to implement and analyze - as it was designed to be performed without a computer.
The modern techniques offer a great improvement in efficiency, needing a much smaller sample size to obtain any desired significance level.
Furthermore, these techniques enable the treatment of many other related experimental designs - such as when there is a need to learn the influence of more than one variable (say, testing the sensitivity of an explosive to both shock level and environment temperature), to models which are not only binary by nature (not only "detonate or not"), to experiments where you decide in advance (or "group") on more than one sample in each "run", and more.
The mechanical thresholds generated have a discrete range of values (i.e. do not lie on an analog scale) and thus should be regarded as non-parametric for statistical purposes.