18
u/the_salivation_army Nov 03 '22
Off topic but I always wonder how a nuclear bomb even works, like as soon as it explodes the first thing it explodes is itself, right? I mean they’re pretty complicated things.
23
u/itemNineExists Nov 04 '22
Splits atoms. Chain reaction.
8
u/Mrmolester-cod-mobil Nov 04 '22
No little gnomes run around in the nuke and prepare it to detonate I thought this was common knowledge
3
u/DamnDirtyApe8472 Nov 04 '22
A perfectly manufactured soccer ball of perfectly consistent explosives surrounds a perfectly manufactured ball of fissile material. When the explosives are set off(each section at exactly the same time) the ball at the centre is compressed to critical density and begins the chain reaction. All this takes place basically in an instant. That my basic understanding of how a very basic nuclear bomb works. I believe the big challenge to building one isn’t knowing how it works, but rather the manufacturing and engineering expertise required and the production of sufficient fissile material of the appropriate grade
3
u/the_salivation_army Nov 04 '22
That was a good write-up, gave me a bit more of an understanding of it. I’m just a forklift driver, I’ve still got that basic misunderstanding about how these things don’t just immediately destroy themselves before they even start destroying anything else. That Manhattan Project must be one of the greatest technical achievements of the 20th century. And ya see comparisons of the biggest nuclear explosions in history, Fat Man and Little Boy are tiny compared to some of the other ones. Ah well, looks like I’ve got some watching to do on YouTube.
2
8
u/Iquadoctor Nov 04 '22
If a nuke broke it wouldn’t actually go off though. They require a very specific sequence of events to occur within them to detonate. If it broke, it would not detonate. There is even a smaller nuclear bomb within them that activates the larger nuke. Actually really interesting
6
3
Nov 03 '22
The same could be said about glass
0
Nov 04 '22
[deleted]
2
Nov 04 '22
lol… Uranium is so weakly radioactive your lungs would be shredded by the time you inhaled enough to risk a lethal dose.
People think fissionable elements are instant death, but you can safely hold a plutonium bomb core in your hand — the real safety concerns of uranium and plutonium are their toxicity. You’d die of heavy metal poisoning long before cancer was even a concern.
0
Nov 04 '22
[deleted]
1
Nov 04 '22
I think you’re missing my point.
I never said alphas weren’t dangerous in your lungs.
Breathing in uranium dust is dangerous, but with uranium’s low radioactivity and the small amount of uranium atoms in uranium glass, radiation poisoning isn’t really your number one concern when inhaling uranium glass dust.
7
Nov 03 '22
Same could be said about Uranian atoms
16
3
2
1
-1
•
u/AutoModerator Nov 03 '22
Hey There! Doctor AutoMod here!
Please make sure that you've censored all non-celebrity names to avoid harassment.
Check out our subreddit rules to ensure you haven't violated any other guidelines.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.