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Questions tagged [explosions]

For questions about explosions (rapid volume expansions associated with an enormous release of energy to the outside).

Explosions are physical reactions that involve an extreme release of energy to the outside. In common, explosions described the behavior of an object when its volume rapidly expanded. This is often associated with an increase in temperature and an enormous change in pressure.

Explosions can occur for various reasons and do not necessarily have to result from physical reactions. For example, they can be of chemical origin (e.g. in chemical reactions in which a lot of gas is released rapidly). Explosions range from quite small to astronomical (e.g. in a supernovae).

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Would a pin head heated to 15 million degrees Celsius kill everyone in a 1000 mile radius?

The YouTube video How Hot Can it Get? contains, at the 2:33 mark, the following claim: A pin head heated to 15 million degrees will kill everyone in a 1000 miles radius. On what basis can this claim be true? Some of the things I can think…
Jus12
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Cause for spikes in Trinity nuclear bomb test

In Richard Rhodes' book, The Making of the Atomic Bomb, I was reading about the Trinity nuclear test. High speed photos were taken and this one is from <1ms after the detonation. The book mentions the irregular spikes at the bottom of the image, but…
Ryan
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How do we get supersonic bullets?

I recently answered a question on the WorldBuilding forum about grenades and bullets. One of the things that came up was that I argued smokeless powder in a rifle round could detonate, but was challenged on that. Commenters said that smokeless…
Cort Ammon
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Is submersion in a canal a good way to shelter from a nuclear strike?

I live 1.5 miles from the center of a city in a nuclear-armed country, and an adversarial country has just put its nuclear forces on high alert during a time of extraordinary geopolitical tension. I am thinking about what I could do to shelter from…
Tom
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Why exactly do atomic bombs explode?

In atomic bombs, nuclear reactions provide the energy of the explosion. In every reaction, a thermal neutron reaches a plutonium or a uranium nucleus, a fission reaction takes place, and two or three neutrons and $\gamma$ radiation are produced. I…
L.Gyula
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In atomic bomb tests under ground, where does the displaced volume of the rocks go?

Underground atomic bomb tests are done in a deep, sealed hole. Not all underground tests eject material on the surface. In this case, they are only noticeable as earthquakes, according to German Wikipedia on nuclear tests. There seems to be no…
Volker Siegel
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What exactly is the fireball caused by a nuclear bomb?

This seems like a pretty simple question, but I can't seem to come up with a satisfactory answer. When a nuclear bomb is detonated a large fireball forms. What is the fuel that drives this fireball? Or is it not a fire in the traditional sense (i.e.…
jordanr
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How large would the steam explosion at Chernobyl have been?

So the second episode of the HBO series began to cover the risk of a steam explosion that led to them sending three divers into the water below the reactor to drain the tanks. This occurred after the initial explosion that destroyed the reactor, and…
Nick S
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Nuclear bomb mushroom cloud with trumpet formation

I have found this specific image here (Loong found out that it is the Soviet Joe 4 test of the 400 kiloton RDS-6 warhead at the Semipalatinsk test site on August 12, 1953): Also an impressive Youtube Video of the same explosion As you see, an…
Thorsten S.
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Is there any aspect of an explosion resulting from a nuclear weapon test that cannot be simulated using super computers?

This Washington Post news article states that with the advent of computer simulation of nuclear tests, live tests are no longer needed. Generally speaking there are 3 aspects of an explosion resulting from a nuclear weapon test that are…
DSarkar
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Is a bomb's shockwave strong enough to kill?

I'm watching a movie, The Hurt Locker, and the first scene shows an IED explosion which kills a soldier. Of course movies don't depict explosions with maximum realism, but I noticed the debris and smoke / flame didn't reach him, and it made me…
J.Todd
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Why does a nuclear explosion have directionality?

It just occurred to me that almost all images I've seen of the (in)famous mushroom cloud show a vertical column rising perpendicular to the ground and a horizontal planar ring parallel to the ground. Not that I'm an expert (that's why this…
DeepSpace101
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What causes the bucket to launch in the air?

In this video potassium is dropped into the bucket and it reacts with the water present in the bucket causing an explosion within the bucket itself. I don't see how an internal explosion makes the bucket launch up vertically in the air. If anything…
Glowingbluejuicebox
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Would an atomic bomb detonate a uranium stockpile?

If a uranium atomic bomb directly hit a stockpile of weapons grade uranium, would the chain reaction also detonate the stockpile? what about a stockpile of nuclear reactor fuel rods? what about a stockpile of various nuclear weapons? what about a…
Lorry Laurence mcLarry
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Why do nuclear bombs make a mushroom?

Atomic bombs make mushroom. It's well-known and we've seen many images of atomic experiments around the world. My question is, what causes the mushroom shape? Do conventional explosives like TNT and grenades also make mini-mushrooms? Is it a…
Saeed Neamati
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