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22 Comments
karaidlI've never quite understood how one atom can release that much energy.
swampgirlCould someone explain to me what photography was used for those black and white shots of the bus and houses getting blown off? The filming is so stationary, what was study enough to capture that up close?
QuboidBig bada boom!
I don't understand how these work either, although I do know that Einstein proved that a single atom holds massive amounts of energy if we could just figure out how to get at it. I think nuclear reactions are different, it's where splitting one atom and getting energy out of it also leads to a few more being split, releasing more energy and splitting more atoms, so it's not that one atom releases that much but that one atom sets off a chain reaction. I think. I'm sure there are sifters who know a lot more about this than me.
CaptainPlanet420Actually, I heard they cram thousands of midgets in the bombs, and the midgets keep setting off fireworks in chain reactions. Them little guys work really fast.
UmberGryphonsays...From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_chain_reaction:
Plutonium-239 + neutron -> fission fragments + 3 neutrons (usually) + 200,000,000 electron-volts.
If your plutonium is pure enough, and it's compressed together tightly enough, and maybe it's surrounded by something that neutrons will bounce off of, then (let's say) 2 of those 3 neutrons will eventually find other plutonium atoms. And those 2 atoms will release 6 neutrons, 4 of which will find targets... which will release 12 neutrons, 8 of which will find plutonium atoms... and the numbers keep doubling and doubling until you're talking about billions and trillions and quadrillions and quintillions of atoms releasing their 200 million electron volts, at which point you're talking about truly ridiculous amounts of energy.
calvados@swampgirl: excellent question, never thought of that. Then again, in footage of well-anchored animal cages (used to expose live pigs to the blast as they have similar flesh to humans -- grisly) being hit by the blast, the cages don't move at all. So I'm guessing a similarly sturdy tower of some sort.
siftbotTags changed from "nuclear bomb" to "nuclear, atom, bomb, nukes, weapons" by gold star member calvados.
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Crakehttp://www.metacafe.com/watch/1166330/nuclear_explosions/
nicer quality here
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probieIf you pause it at 2:36, you can *just* make out a flying refrigerator. Lead-lined, of course... *rolls eyes*
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