• Farid@startrek.website
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    12 days ago

    Correct me if I’m wrong, but if you’re able to perceive the nuclear explosion and not even go blind, then you aren’t close enough for your house to disintegrate like that.

    • Zron@lemmy.world
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      12 days ago

      The blindness thing is really only for a split second while the fission/fusion is actually happening. By the time the mushroom cloud has formed, the actual explosion was like 30 seconds ago.

      If you see a full mushroom cloud, that means the glass in front of you is probably going to rapidly accelerate into your skull when the shockwave hits you.

        • Zron@lemmy.world
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          12 days ago

          Nukes are crazy.

          The mushroom cloud is actually caused by all the dust and debris that gets sucked up into the actual explosion.

          Nuclear reactions happen at near light speed, and the heat from them does propagate at light speed.

          • passiveaggressivesonar@lemmy.world
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            12 days ago

            I still struggle to see how that sudden reaction can create so much pressure, a regular explosive is creating heavy byproducts and is expanding the gases already present in the explosive, but the sudden heating of a small uranium core and the air around it can create a bigger explosion than a bomb thousands of times heavier? Boggles my mind

            • Zron@lemmy.world
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              11 days ago

              Well that’s the thing, conventional explosions convert chemical bonds into energy. Chemical bonds are fairly weak in the grand scheme of things.

              Nuclear weapons convert nuclear bonds into energy. Atoms really like staying the atoms they currently are, so forcing them to convert all at once releases a ton of energy.