How many tons of TNT is a nuke?

How many tons of TNT is a nuke?

Nuclear bombs have had yields between 10 tons TNT (the W54) and 50 megatons for the Tsar Bomba (see TNT equivalent). A thermonuclear weapon weighing little more than 2,400 pounds (1,100 kg) can release energy equal to more than 1.2 million tons of TNT (5.0 PJ).

How many tons of TNT would it take to destroy Earth?

How many tons would it take to destroy Earth? It basically boils away the whole Earth. The gravitational binding energy of Earth is about 2.2*1032 J, corresponding to 5*1022 tons of TNT. The largest weapon tested so far (Tsar bomba) had 50 megatons, we would need 1015 or 1 quadrillion of them.

How big of an explosion does an atomic bomb make?

When completely fissioned, 1 kg (2.2 pounds) of uranium-235 releases the energy equivalently produced by 17,000 tons, or 17 kilotons, of TNT. The detonation of an atomic bomb releases enormous amounts of thermal energy, or heat, achieving temperatures of several million degrees in the exploding bomb itself.

How many joules was the Hiroshima bomb?

The atomic bomb exploded over Hiroshima released about 1.5×1013 joules of energy.

How much can a hydrogen bomb destroy?

The volume the weapon’s energy spreads into varies as the cube of the distance, but the destroyed area varies at the square of the distance. Thus 1 bomb with a yield of 1 megaton would destroy 80 square miles. While 8 bombs, each with a yield of 125 kilotons, would destroy 160 square miles.

Is a gigaton nuke possible?

So short answer is it has been possible since the 1960’s to create gigaton yield warheads, but there is no practical reason to do so, nor is there a practical means of delivering them.

Is TNT or dynamite more powerful?

It’s the small explosion of the blasting cap that is required to cause the nitroglycerin to explode. You may see some explosives labeled “TNT” that look like dynamite. TNT stands for trinitrotoluene, which is also an explosive but quite different from dynamite. Dynamite is actually much more powerful than TNT.

What is a megaton bomb?

Noun. 1. megaton bomb – a nuclear weapon with an explosive power equivalent to one million tons of TNT. bomb – an explosive device fused to explode under specific conditions. atomic weapon, nuclear weapon – a weapon of mass destruction whose explosive power derives from a nuclear reaction.

What is the blast radius of a 50 megaton bomb?

The Soviet Union built the largest thermonuclear bomb in human history. The name of the bomb was Tsar Bomba. It had a yield of 50 megatons of TNT. Fireball radius was 2.3 km or covering 16.61 square kilometers.

What is the difference between an atomic bomb and a hydrogen bomb?

An atomic bomb is a nuclear weapon that explodes due to the extreme energy released by nuclear fission. A hydrogen bomb is a nuclear weapon that explodes from the intense energy released by nuclear fusion. Hydrogen bomb is more distructive.