What is Digg?266 Comments
- fluidfoundation, on 11/07/2007, -13/+224Thats not a nuclear explosion, thats Peter Petrelli.
- blorc, on 10/10/2007, -8/+189All that energy from tiny 'ol atom. Always impressive.
- degron, on 10/10/2007, -5/+136That's the coolest thing I've seen today...
- chriscantu, on 10/10/2007, -3/+117This picture is refered to the Tumbler-Snapper test "Rope Trick" on what you're seeing:
"Rope Tricks"
The image below shows the growing fireball, taken about one millisecond after detonation, for one of the Snapper tower shots (I haven't been able to find out which one yet). There are two striking features about this picture - the spikes projecting from the bottom of the fireball, and the ghostly mottling of the fireball surface.
The peculiar spikes are extensions of the fireball surface along ropes or cables that stretch from the shot cab (the housing for the test device at the top of the tower) to the ground. This novel phenomenon was named a "rope trick" by Dr. John Malik who investigated it. The effect had been observed in earlier tests when spikes were seen extending along cables that moored the shot towers to the ground. During Snapper Malik conducted experiments using different kinds of cables and ropes, and with different surface treatments. Consequently the spikes in this picture may be due to either mooring cables, or Malik's own test ropes.
The cause of the "rope trick" is the absorption of thermal radiation from the fireball by the rope. The fireball is still extremely hot (surface temperature around 20,000 degrees K at this point, some three and a half times hotter than the surface of the sun; at the center it may be more than ten times hotter) and radiates a tremendous amount of energy as visible light (intensity over 100 times greater than the sun) to which air is (surprise!) completely transparent. The rope is not transparent however, and the section of rope extending from the fireball surface gets rapidly heated to very high temperatures. The luminous vaporized rope rapidly expands and forms a spike-shaped extension of the fireball. Malik observed that if the rope was painted black spike formation was enhanced, and if it was painted with reflective paint or wrapped in aluminum foil no spikes were observed.
Cause of the surface mottling. At this point in the explosion, a true hydrodynamic shock front has just formed. Prior to this moment the growth of the fireball was due to radiative transport, i.e. thermal x-rays outran the expanding bomb debris. Now however the fireball expansion is caused by the shock front driven by hydrodynamic pressure (as in a conventional explosion, only far more intense). The glowing surface of the fireball is due to shock compression heating of the air. This means that the fireball is now growing far more slowly than before. The bomb (and shot cab) vapors were initially accelerated to very high velocities (several tens of kilometers/sec) and clumps of this material are now splashing against the back of the shock front in an irregular pattern (due to initial variations in mass distribution around the bomb core), creating the curious mottled appearance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rope_trick_effect - inactive, on 10/10/2007, -7/+116Yes, it's da bomb.
- rblancarte, on 10/10/2007, -2/+98Allow me to introduce you to the females of the human race ...
- rspeed, on 10/10/2007, -1/+92It's quite a few tiny ol' atoms.
- turbopro, on 10/10/2007, -8/+99another millisecond and it would have looked like the Spaghetti Monster.
Ramen. - Otto, on 10/10/2007, -1/+81More info about this photo:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Tumbler_Snapper_rope_tricks.jpg - wendelgee2, on 10/10/2007, -1/+79So, what exactly is that that we're seeing? Shockwave? Plasma? Just plain fire? What is the substance of the explosion?
- DNAspark99, on 10/10/2007, -0/+63from the wiki:
The photograph specifically shows two unusual phenomena: bright spikes projecting from the bottom of the fireball, and the peculiar mottling of the expanding fireball surface. The surface of the fireball is at over 20,000 kelvin and emits huge amounts of visible light radiation (more than 100 times the intensity of sunlight) to which the atmosphere is transparent. Anything solid in the area absorbs the light and rapidly heats. The "rope tricks" which protrude from the bottom of the fireball are caused by the heating, rapid vaporization and then expansion of mooring cables (or specialized rope trick test cables) which extend from the shot cab (the housing at the top of the tower that contains the explosive device) to the ground. Malik observed that when the rope was painted black, spike formation was enhanced, and if it were painted with reflective paint or wrapped in aluminum foil, no spikes were observed – thus confirming the hypothesis that it is heating and vaporization of the rope, induced by exposure to high-intensity visible light radiation, which causes the effect. Because of the lack of mooring ropes, no "rope trick" effects were observed in surface-detonation tests, free-flying weapons tests, or, obviously, in underground tests. - 80hd, on 10/10/2007, -2/+55I find those things in my closet all the time
- Phatt138, on 10/10/2007, -0/+45The fact that he understood that it has to do with the conversion of mass to energy puts him ahead of 99% of the people who drop it.
- Klarth, on 10/10/2007, -1/+45Tumbler Snapper rope tricks...?
I thought it was a pretty nonsensical kind of image name, but I looked it up - to clear things up for anyone else perplexed: Tumbler-Snapper was the name of the series of nuclear tests, and "rope tricks" are the interesting lines at the base of the blast. - dtilford, on 10/10/2007, -2/+40colored version of the photo here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Tumbler_Snapper_rope_tricks_Edit1.jpg - sockpuppets, on 10/10/2007, -1/+39Nuclear-American is more appropriate.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -3/+37I think it's Phazon.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -2/+30An iPhone IN a nuclear explosion.
- DangerCollie, on 10/10/2007, -2/+29Ramen.
- llbbl, on 10/10/2007, -1/+26Mechanic: Somebody set up us the bomb.
- fluidfoundation, on 10/10/2007, -0/+25Your comment. Definitely your comment.
- mentor972, on 10/10/2007, -0/+25Ummm... what's the scale here?
- Almadiel, on 10/10/2007, -0/+24Well, a handful is a pretty big number when you are counting atoms.
- Renton, on 10/10/2007, -0/+24The C stands for the speed of light.
- fliguy84, on 10/10/2007, -8/+31How can something so destructive be so beautiful?
- Otto, on 10/10/2007, -0/+21The expansion *actually* consists of heat and a shock wave.
A normal explosive converts some solid into a whole lot of gas, very quickly. This expansion of those gasses causes the damage.
A nuclear explosion converts a small amount of matter into a large amount of pure energy. That energy is expressed in the form of radiation (alpha, beta, gamma) and heat. Mostly heat. While Alpha Particles are actually a gas (helium), beta particles are electrons and gamma rays are electromagnetic radiation (a form of light). So the expansion comes from the sudden massive amount of heat released: Hot gases expand. The surrounding air heats so much that it creates a large overpressure wave which is what does most of the destruction. - BillyBIanks, on 10/10/2007, -5/+26***** Samus; I wanna talk to Sampson!
- Moskie, on 10/10/2007, -0/+21I wish I could be as smart as andrewsmith1986.
- fluidfoundation, on 10/10/2007, -2/+23you can't say colored anymore.
- nickj6282, on 10/10/2007, -1/+22Otto, why the ***** are you still driving a bus?
- Klarth, on 10/10/2007, -1/+20Why is there always one person who finds fault with absolutely ***** anything?
It was frontpaged because enough people enjoyed it. If your tastes are at odds with those of other people, then take it up the ass and deal with it like a man. - Azimuth1, on 10/10/2007, -1/+19Caused by ninjas.
- Dotmeister, on 10/10/2007, -0/+18The camera was 7 miles away and the lens were 10 feet long.
- megatron, on 10/10/2007, -3/+20That's clearly Krang from dimension X.
- 1Bit, on 10/10/2007, -0/+17Here are similar pictures of another atomic blast:
http://www.nevadasurveyor.com/atomicbomb/
taken from this much older submission:
http://digg.com/general_sciences/Photos_of_an_Atomic_Blast_taken_at_1_1000,000,000_of-a-second - elnerdo, on 10/10/2007, -0/+16Metroid: Sucks
Nuke: Blows - Netrilix, on 10/10/2007, -1/+16... in a vacuum. If you're gonna be an ass, at least go all the way.
- 80hd, on 10/10/2007, -0/+14boom
- samgab, on 10/10/2007, -1/+15Ooop... And there it is.
- divrekku, on 10/10/2007, -2/+16boo.
- TheKrillr, on 10/10/2007, -0/+13in a war against pirates.
- Jemulov, on 10/10/2007, -1/+13"Some copypasta from a site about nuclear materials says otherwise:"
Critical masses in spherical geometry for weapon-grade materials are as follows:
Bare sphere: (Uranium-235) 56 kg (Plutonium-239) 11 kg
Thick Tamper: (Uranium-235) 15 kg (Plutonium-239) 5 kg
So, working with the bare minimum amount of nuclear material 20kg you can calculate the number of atoms.
First let's work with U235.
1) Convert kilograms into grams (kg x 1000)
2) Divide grams by the molar mass of U235 (which would be 235g/mol)
3) Multiply the moles by Avagadro's Number (moles of U235 x 6.022x10^23)
If you followed directions right there should be 1.2813x10^25 atoms in a measly 5 kg sample of U235. That's 12,813,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms
Do the same equation with 15kg of Plutonium 239 and the atoms in that should be around 3.7795x10^25.
So add them together and you should get 5.0608x10^25 atoms.
A grand total of approximately 50,608,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms.
Yea, a lot more than a handful if you ask me. - gordonp, on 10/10/2007, -0/+12Wikipedia says it's 20meters across.
- sockpuppets, on 10/10/2007, -1/+12Clever called, he said you're a ***** idiot and then just hung up.
- BevansDesign, on 10/10/2007, -0/+11It's a Beholder.
Wait, maybe I should admit that I know what a beholder is. Where's that delete button... - jimsf, on 10/10/2007, -1/+12This is a Harold Edgerton photo. Whats equally impressive is how far away he was when he took this. I believe the camera was 7 miles away. The lens was 10 feet long. Absolutely incredible work.
I wrote up a short blurb about him on my blog a while back.
http://www.jmg-galleries.com/blog/2007/07/07/amazing-photographer-harold-edgerton/
you can also learn more about him and these photos on the following site:
http://www.anomalies-unlimited.com/Bomb.html - blorc, on 10/10/2007, -2/+12Sorry, I meant to make it plural (as you might be able to tell from the way "from tiny 'ol atom" sounds when you say it). I just missed my "s" key ;)
- richlizard24, on 10/10/2007, -0/+10No one cares that you were hoping to say it first. Why have all comments become stupid and pointless to read? Out of all the comments on this story, I bet about 10 of them are funny enough for me to spend an hour looking for them. I want the days when every comment on digg would be funny as hell and worth my time.
- HyperJack, on 10/10/2007, -0/+10Its not ugly. The consequences of it are ugly. The same thing happens in space to stars (including our Sun) daily. But because its so far away we think its beautiful.
- zengonzo, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9Looks like Metroid is the reference king for the time being ..
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