# Nuclear Explosion Power Comparison



## Starbeast (Dec 26, 2017)




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## J Riff (Dec 27, 2017)

Good to know... *


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## Starbeast (Dec 27, 2017)

I was curious.


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## BigBadBob141 (Dec 27, 2017)

This reminds me of a short story by Isaac Asimov.
The Galactic Recorder has a large book in which he records every civilization in the Galaxy that is ready to join the federation.
A messenger arrives and says Earth has just detonated their first atomic bomb.
Having atomic power means they are now advanced enough to join.
"Good" says the recorder writing down Earths name in his book.
"Soon there ships will make contact with ours".
"Oh no" says the messenger, "They have not developed space travel yet".
"What" says the recorder amazed, "You mean they are testing bombs on their own planet!"
"Yes" says the messenger.
"Idiots" says the recorder crossing out the name!!!


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## Mike Donoghue (Jan 1, 2018)

BigBadBob141 said:


> This reminds me of a short story by Isaac Asimov.
> The Galactic Recorder has a large book in which he records every civilization in the Galaxy that is ready to join the federation.
> A messenger arrives and says Earth has just detonated their first atomic bomb.
> Having atomic power means they are now advanced enough to join.
> ...



I don't understand Azimov's premise: what if a civilization is testing nuclear bombs for space travel, like the Orion Project? What if a civilization is detonating nuclear warheads to create reservoirs, like Project Plowshares? What if a civilization is detonating a nuclear bomb on their planet because testing bombs ,intended for defense theoretical invading from an alien force, is too expensive and would pollute the radiation belts with charge particles that would wreck satellites for months? I don't think it's reasonable that a galactic civilization would have such a 1950's MAD skewed view.

Also, I am _pretty_ sure the creator of the video _did not_ scale the relative sizes correctly. The max height of the Hiroshima Bomb's mushroom cloud was ~60,000 feet, or 11 miles, whereas the height of the Tsar Bomb's cloud was ~40 miles. That's a relative difference of about 4, in reality. In the video, they show a height difference of--bye eyeball--somewhere between 16-20. Well, 16 is the relative difference by taking the cubed root of the tonnage of the Tsar Bomb divided by the tonnage of the Hirsohima Bomb (i.e. (50 MT/.0125 MT)^1/3), which is likely what they did. That only holds true for the size of the fireball (a sphere), not for the cloud. For the cloud, gravity becomes a factor, changing the scale factor from 1/3rd to 1/4th. This isn't even counting atmospheric effects, such as both temperature and density decreasing with height, which reduces the scale factor even further.


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## BigBadBob141 (Jan 2, 2018)

Building atomic bombs shows that we are technically advanced enough to contact.
It's not easy to extract Uranium 235 and as for Plutonium 239 you need an atomic reactor.
But detonating them in your own atmosphere is stupid because of radioactive fall out.
If you want to know more about the good doctors reasoning I suggest you get a Ouija board!!!
P.S. I have always thought the idea behind Project Orion a really, really stupid one.
It's so damned clumsy, it's a bit like propelling your car by tossing lit sticks of dynamite over your shoulder and out the back window!!!


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## Mike Donoghue (Jan 3, 2018)

BigBadBob141 said:


> Building atomic bombs shows that we are technically advanced enough to contact.
> It's not easy to extract Uranium 235 and as for Plutonium 239 you need an atomic reactor.
> But detonating them in your own atmosphere is stupid because of radioactive fall out.
> If you want to know more about the good doctors reasoning I suggest you get a Ouija board!!!
> ...



Nuclear energy is an extremely important topic which is why I'm going to come across a bit feisty.

Building atomic bombs is not and should not be the determining factor in a species being "technically advanced enough for contact". I ask you sincerely, _why do you think this??? _Nuclear bombs are no more complicated than any other 40s era weapon involving electrical circuits, timers, and whatever decades old chemical and metallurgical techniques were needed.

It is not "easy" to extract Uranium-235? Plutonium-239? Have you ever thought about what would actually be required to have a galactic government?? Nuclear chemistry and nuclear physics are child's play to worm holes, warp drives, generation ships, the list goes on. Fission is so comparatively easy to the likes of anti-matter, controlled fusion, hell, even miniaturized computers that fission occurred at least once _NATURALLY WITH NO HUMAN INVOLVEMENT_ at the Oklo Uranium mine in Africa. 

Nuclear fallout from atmospheric testing is only a problem if people are directly in the path or if, well, people are directly in the path. Yes, I repeated myself intentionally. The atmosphere is so gigantic, the oceans so vast, and the biosphere so used to natural background radiation that the truly _minuscule_ amounts of fallout from the "nuclear age" only raised the background airborne radiation intensity by a few %. _Single digits. _At the _height_ of testing. And if you can find a legitimate health physicist who has conclusive proof that that tiny increase in annual dose from an already highly variable low dose rate source of radiation (i.e. background radiation) caused any detrimental effect to human health anywhere on the planet, then you deserve the Nobel prize in investigative journalism because nothing of the sort has been shown.

Out of respect for the doctor, I will not call upon his spirit.

As for your feelings about the Orion Project, I agree with the premise that it seems extreme, but so are its payoffs, if by "dynamite" you mean nuclear shaped charged, and by "car" you mean specially designed spacecraft on that can be on the order of thousands of tons, and by "toss" you mean precisely ejected, then I agree.


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## K. Riehl (Jan 6, 2018)

Interactive map of bomb yields. I would be a goner even with the smallest.
NUKEMAP by Alex Wellerstein


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## BigBadBob141 (Apr 4, 2018)

Orion is about as practical as Verne's Moon gun.
P.S. It was only a short funny story ment as a joke.


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