Mark asks…
Hydrogen Bomb?
Is it true that a hydrogen bomb can be made indefinitely large? And given materials available on Earth, can a Hydrogen bomb be made to destroy entire planets?
admin answers:
In order to totally destroy the earth you would need to create enough energy that the earth contains (it’s a law of physics!). The earth contains roughly 2.24*10^32 Joules of energy. It is thought that an object creating enough energy/force 3/5 of this number could shatter the earth (not completely destroy, but, whatever – close enough). So we need to generate 1.5×10^32 – 2.25×10^32 Joules of energy with our mega-bomb, right?
1 kiloton equals 4.184 x10^12 Joules, so you need a bomb between 50-85 zetatons capacity (or at least 5×10^22 tons). The largest bomb detonated has a theoretical capacity of 100 Megatons (a russian bomb called Tsar Bomba), and weighed 27 tons itself. A little more math, and you would require a bomb that weighed 1.35×10^17 tons or 135 petatons.
While this is only about 1/100,000 the size of the earth, this is only about 1/100ths of the earth’s crust. That’s a lot of material needed to make the bomb!
(not to mention that the earth doesn’t that have the required radioactive elements in its crust!)
Helen asks…
What is the difference between an atomic bomb and a hydrogen bomb?
I know tritium is used in the making of hydrogen bombs, but how and what is the difference between ti and the atomic bomb??
admin answers:
Hydrogen bombs are more powerful. But here is a more detailed explanation.
Here are two basic types of nuclear weapon. The first type produces its explosive energy through nuclear fission reactions alone. Such fission weapons are commonly referred to as atomic bombs or atom bombs (abbreviated as A-bombs), though their energy comes specifically from the nucleus of the atom.
In fission weapons, a mass of fissile material (enriched uranium or plutonium) is assembled into a supercritical mass—the amount of material needed to start an exponentially growing nuclear chain reaction—either by shooting one piece of sub-critical material into another (the “gun” method) or by compressing a sub-critical sphere of material using chemical explosives to many times its original density (the “implosion” method). The latter approach is considered more sophisticated than the former and only the latter approach can be used if the fissile material is plutonium.
A major challenge in all nuclear weapon designs is to ensure that a significant fraction of the fuel is consumed before the weapon destroys itself. The amount of energy released by fission bombs can range from the equivalent of less than a ton of TNT upwards of 500,000 tons (500 kilotons) of TNT.[5]
The second basic type of nuclear weapon produces a large amount of its energy through nuclear fusion reactions. Such fusion weapons are generally referred to as thermonuclear weapons or more colloquially as hydrogen bombs (abbreviated as H-bombs), as they rely on fusion reactions between isotopes of hydrogen (deuterium and tritium). However, all such weapons derive a significant portion, and sometimes a majority, of their energy from fission (including fission induced by neutrons from fusion reactions). Unlike fission weapons, there are no inherent limits on the energy released by thermonuclear weapons. Only six countries—United States, Russia, United Kingdom, People’s Republic of China, France and India—have conducted thermonuclear weapon tests. (Whether India has detonated a “true”, multi-staged thermonuclear weapon is controversial.)[6]
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