Hey @magnet, nice name. You’re profile is right, the atom bomb or nuclear weapon did take us to a new level and type of warfare. Unfortunately, not always for the better.
This type of bomb is so complicated for many reasons. The chemicals that go into the bomb generally dont exist in nature so high tech machines called enriching facilities need to convert some atoms into unstable or ‘fissile’ material. All thats a little complicated but easier just to say natural types of minerals need converting into unstable ones.
These type of chemicals generally wont explode by themselves and something called ‘the critical mass’ need to be made. The way nuclear weapons do this can be different. The first famous nuclear weapon used in WWII was called ‘Little Boy’. It detonated using the gun method which is like a lock and key. Most of the bomb sits happily by itself and is safe until a normal high explosive shoots a smaller piece of nuclear material into the larger one which then makes the critical mass and it detonates.
As you can see there are many reasons why they are complex. But I think this is probably a good thing dont you? They’re great to watch on video but I wouldn’t want to be within 100kms of one exploding.
Hey @magnet, nice name. You’re profile is right, the atom bomb or nuclear weapon did take us to a new level and type of warfare. Unfortunately, not always for the better.
This type of bomb is so complicated for many reasons. The chemicals that go into the bomb generally dont exist in nature so high tech machines called enriching facilities need to convert some atoms into unstable or ‘fissile’ material. All thats a little complicated but easier just to say natural types of minerals need converting into unstable ones.
These type of chemicals generally wont explode by themselves and something called ‘the critical mass’ need to be made. The way nuclear weapons do this can be different. The first famous nuclear weapon used in WWII was called ‘Little Boy’. It detonated using the gun method which is like a lock and key. Most of the bomb sits happily by itself and is safe until a normal high explosive shoots a smaller piece of nuclear material into the larger one which then makes the critical mass and it detonates.
As you can see there are many reasons why they are complex. But I think this is probably a good thing dont you? They’re great to watch on video but I wouldn’t want to be within 100kms of one exploding.
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