Hiroshima’s bomb was Little Boy, which contained 64 kg of uranium, which at 19.1 g/cm^3 would be about 3.3 liters, significantly larger than a cricket ball.
But Nagasaki’s Fat Man used about 6.2 kg of plutonium, which has roughly the same density as uranium, although the implosion mechanism to initiate the chain reaction compressed it to about half the volume. So that’s closer to a cricket ball.
But also to add even more nuance, the plutonium in Fat Man used a uranium tamper to reflect neutrons, and estimates are that about 30% of the explosion yield was due to fission of the uranium too. So it’s hard to really draw the line on what was or wasn’t the “explosive” in that bomb.
the implosion mechanism to initiate the chain reaction compressed it to about half the volume.
Y’know, I’ve done a lot of “hobby research” into nuclear weapons, but never really did the math on the degree to which the pit was compressed. Just on an intuitive level, it’s already a bit difficult to fathom solids compressing, but not unreasonable to imagine. However, in my head it was like, a couple percent at most. Forcing a solid ball of insanely dense metal into a space half of what it originally was just blows my mind even more.
Hiroshima’s bomb was Little Boy, which contained 64 kg of uranium, which at 19.1 g/cm^3 would be about 3.3 liters, significantly larger than a cricket ball.
But Nagasaki’s Fat Man used about 6.2 kg of plutonium, which has roughly the same density as uranium, although the implosion mechanism to initiate the chain reaction compressed it to about half the volume. So that’s closer to a cricket ball.
But also to add even more nuance, the plutonium in Fat Man used a uranium tamper to reflect neutrons, and estimates are that about 30% of the explosion yield was due to fission of the uranium too. So it’s hard to really draw the line on what was or wasn’t the “explosive” in that bomb.
Y’know, I’ve done a lot of “hobby research” into nuclear weapons, but never really did the math on the degree to which the pit was compressed. Just on an intuitive level, it’s already a bit difficult to fathom solids compressing, but not unreasonable to imagine. However, in my head it was like, a couple percent at most. Forcing a solid ball of insanely dense metal into a space half of what it originally was just blows my mind even more.