How Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs Work In 10 Minutes

missiles that carry destruction ammunition that is incredibly dangerous but still used if nuclear weapons come to mind then you have the right idea damage from exposure fuel hydrogen and atomic bombs is measured in millions of dollars but no one really goes into details about why this happens it seems to me that this is a very interesting topic for analysis therefore today I'll tell you what's the secret of the destructiveness of these bombs and indeed how they work some people think that atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs are virtually the same to some extent this is true because both types of bombs are categorized as nuclear weapons but to talk about the differences first we need to understand the basic concept nuclear arms are weapons of mass destruction that use nuclear energy to create an explosion this energy in turn is contained in atomic nuclei and is released during nuclear reactions and radioactive decay I'm sure that the last two concepts are already familiar to you I've mentioned similar processes occurring in the nuclei of stars several times before but today we move away from the topic of space and discuss what's created by human hands so if both types of bombs use nuclear energy what could be the difference the main thing is in how they explode let's start with an analysis of the atomic bomb this weapon usually looks like an elongated rounded torpedo nothing special but the main danger lies inside to get the so called nuclear explosion a certain reaction must occur the chain reaction of the fission of heavy nuclei there are several heavy elements that are capable of such a reaction usually uranium-235 is used in nuclear weapons you might have heard somewhere that not only uranium-235 is radioactive there's also uranium 238 as well as uranium 234 different numbers tag to the end of an element are isotopes to put it simply different types of one element but we won't go into unnecessary details because only uranium-235 can do what we are all here for to obtain the maximum amount of energy during the explosion of an atomic bomb the content of 235 isotope in uranium should be at least 80% therefore in the production of nuclear weapons uranium is enriched further but if something goes wrong with this process there is a fallback you can also create a plutonium bomb which will be based on the isotope with a number 239 however this element is rarely found in nature which means that you'd have to try and create it artificially now we know enough about the inside of an atomic bomb but how do we launch such a weapon the nuclear explosion occurs because a certain mass of fissile material is concentrated in one place this can also be called critical mass when it is reached a nuclear decay reaction is formed with the release of energy but for a powerful explosion one critical mass is not enough to get a truly destructive bomb you'll need four to five critical masses of matter there are several ways to achieve this but I'll talk about the main one it's called implosive imagine a nuclear bomb for example in the form of a small ball inside it are all the necessary components for a nuclear reaction but that critical mass hasn't been reached in order to achieve this will create a guided explosion from the outside suppose I put an explosive on the outside of the bomb and detonate it when properly exposed the space inside the bomb will begin to shrink towards the center of the shockwave the density of uranium or plutonium inside will increase and we get a nuclear explosion what about the hydrogen bomb in this explosive device energy is released due to thermonuclear fusion a very fast explosive reaction takes place inside the charge with the help of elements such as deuterium and tritium other heavier elements can also be used along with them however the main effective substance is lithium hydride by itself it doesn't produce an explosion so clearly we need something else the detonation of this substance is usually carried out by an integrated nuclear device with low power in a simple way it can be called a detonator when it's activated energy is released which triggers an explosive thermonuclear reaction inside the bomb interestingly for hydrogen bombs there's theoretically no limit to the power if you wish you could create such a powerful bomb that it would simply wipe all life from the face of the earth but I hope it never crosses anyone's mind by the way more about power in the case of nuclear weapons they're measured in TNT equivalent why is that so TNT is an explosive and quite well known to understand the power of a nuclear explosion a certain amount of TNT is needed to produce the same energy usually it's expressed in kilotons and megatons and I have some examples of various bombs to begin with the famous Tsar Bomba it's related to thermonuclear that is a hydrogen type of weapon its power is 58 six megatons simply put it was such an amount of TNT that would have had to have been detonated imported to compare with this one bomb as for nuclear weapons the most famous are little boy and fat man the first was dropped on the city of Hiroshima in 1945 and had a capacity of 13 to 18 kilotons of TNT the second bomb destroyed the city of Nagasaki three days after the first it had a capacity of twenty-one kilotons the consequences of strikes with such power are not difficult to predict first of all there's chaos and destruction caused by a shockwave and light radiation but there's also something that cannot be seen with the eyes it's impossible to feel or hear and talking about radiation radiation one of the factors caused as a result of the explosion of nuclear weapons and if you're near a detonated bomb I have bad news for you there are three main types of ionizing radiation these are alpha beta and gamma and no matter how much we wouldn't want it they would all contaminate the area where a nuclear explosion occurred alpha radiation will not do much harm a person's clothing may well protect them from contact with exposed skin but it's also worth protecting your mucous membranes beta radiation is a little more serious and can cause significant damage at a distance of several tens of meters or feet from the radiation source among the consequences could be radiation burns and cataracts it's unlikely that anything will protect us from the effects of gamma radiation except for thick layers of certain substances such as lead and concrete with its high penetrating power it literally permeates the body causing damage the most well-known consequences are radiation sickness cancer and gene mutations at the moment nine countries have nuclear weapons and they're also deployed to foreign installations but even if someone wanted to the total power of the entire world nuclear arsenal wouldn't be able to destroy the whole planet there are about 15,000 nuclear warheads in the world all of them have different amounts of power but let's take some approximate values for example suppose each of the 15,000 bombs have a capacity of 500 kilotons putting them all together we get a super bomb with a capacity of 7500 megatons what would it be capable of well to give an example it would be an explosion with a force about 13,000 times less than an impact from the asteroid chicks elope you already know the consequences of its fall so reduce them also by about 13,000 times in any case nuclear weapons can't be compared with any other weapon it's not allowed to be used just because somebody wants to therefore we shouldn't fear a nuclear strike in the near future but it's important to understand how such a weapon works don't forget to give it a thumbs up if you like this video click on the bell so you don't miss new releases and subscribe to the channel to stay up to date on the latest developments from the world of science [Music]

Channel: Ridddle

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Keywords: Ridddle, riddle, what if, what, if, what would happened, What Happens If, sci, science, smart, experiment, How works, How work, in 10 minutes, explainer, explanation

Id: 3p4NteQYhL0

Length: 10min 4sec (604 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 21 2020