Autzoo.1630
net.games.emp
utzoo!henry
Tue May 4 18:44:38 1982
nuclear effects
The orthodox rule of thumb is that the radii of bomb effects scale
as the 1/2.7th power of energy release. Bomb effects are somewhere
between volume and area effects, hence between cube and square roots,
and 1/2.7 is a good empirical fit. If you want more definite info,
check the graphs in "The Effects of Nuclear Weapons", published by
the AEC and found in most sizeable libraries.
It is definitely true that several modest-sized bombs are better at
destroying an area than one big one. The energy of a large nuclear
bomb is too concentrated; much of it gets spent re-re-re-blasting
the already-devastated central area. This is why there are no
hundred-megaton bombs in actual service; the biggest bombs actually
in the arsenals are 10-20 megatons, and most missile warheads and
so forth are a few hundred kilotons at most. This is also a major
reason why the Oppenheimer committee argued (about 1950) that there
was no valid military requirement for the hydrogen bomb.
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