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Less than two percent of the Hiroshima bomb's uranium actually detonated


Myna

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Little Boy, the nuclear bomb that U.S. forces dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945, leveled a two-mile radius of the city, killing an estimated 80,000 people. It was an enormous amount of destruction—and it was caused by less than two percent of the uranium carried by the bomb.

In a recent interview on NPR's Fresh Air, author Eric Schlosser explains just how inefficient this early nuclear bomb was (skip to 11:13 in the recording).

In the case of Hiroshima, the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima was an incredibly crude and inefficient weapon. When it exploded, about 99 percent of the uranium that was supposed to undergo this chain reaction, didn't. It just blew apart in the air, and a very small percentage, maybe two percent of the fissile material, actually detonated. And most of it just became other radioactive elements. [. . .] Now to imagine how small an amount that is, seven-tenths of a gram of uranium is about the size of a peppercorn. Seven-tenths of a gram weighs less than a dollar bill. So even though this weapon was unbelievably inefficient, and almost 99 percent of the uranium had nothing to do with the destruction of Hiroshima, it was a catastrophic explosion.

As Schlosser puts it, "nuclear weapons since then have become remarkably efficient and small and capable of destruction that makes Hiroshima seem trivial." Given the stories of false alarms, nuclear accidents, and harrowing near-disasters contained in Schlosser's book, and the reports of shaky security in the U.S.'s nuclear arsenal, it's enough to make you wish humanity had never figured out how to make these weapons in the first place. [NPR]

Source: http://factually.gizmodo.com/less-than-2-of-the-uranium-in-the-hiroshima-bomb-actua-1624444762

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Why are we discussing things that killed thousands of people? This thread should be deleted-woefully inappropriate.

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Why are we discussing things that killed thousands of people? This thread should be deleted-woefully inappropriate.

Because it's a part of the history...

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Why are we discussing things that killed thousands of people? This thread should be deleted-woefully inappropriate.

because it was on a radio show and the OP thought it interesting to share. you dont like it - TOO BAD.

or you would be speaking japanese right now.

just imagine if they won WW2....

I am fed up with the trolls on this forum that are quick to hate anything that is not liberal or politically correct.

and you fukkers KNOW who you are.

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quite interesting information on the original post....and jackieo...just hint...find a way to tell someone off without resorting becoming a troll yourself...humor works...in real life too and even better on the internet forums... and it will also prevent you from having a heart attack or brain aneurysm too or getting arrested for thumping out some bone head that does deserve thumping...the police and prosecutors frown upon that...or so i have been told

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on a side note...a guy in my city when i was younger... made full scale model of "fat man" put it on wheels and used it to tow his camping gear when he was vacations... i never did get a picture of it and wonder what happened to it as i have not seen it around any more..it was always kind of cool to see people stopping to go look at it in his yard

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I'm only going to say this once and I'm not getting into verbal sparring matches with any foul-mouthed idiots. You KNOW who you are.

My father WAS a Korean Veteran and a POW. My younger brother WAS a Seabee and did 2 tours of Iraq. I've seen first-hand what War does to people in the Military.

The only good thing about War is its' conclusion.

My apologies; I should not have responded in the first place; it was a mistake that prompted idiotic rhetoric. This is basically a Tech Forum; it's why I joined in the first place.

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I'm only going to say this once and I'm not getting into verbal sparring matches with any foul-mouthed idiots. You KNOW who you are.

My father WAS a Korean Veteran and a POW. My younger brother WAS a Seabee and did 2 tours of Iraq. I've seen first-hand what War does to people in the Military.

The only good thing about War is its' conclusion.

My apologies; I should not have responded in the first place; it was a mistake that prompted idiotic rhetoric. This is basically a Tech Forum; it's why I joined in the first place.

The thread is posted on The Chat Bar.

The chat bar is a place for off topics. Even then, its totally related to Tech.

The atomic bomb is a part of our history.

Why do you think its inappropriate???

The thread wasn't about celebrating the death of thousands of people but its about the bomb and the technology back then. And how tech have evolved.

This thread is about knowledge and nothing else.

If people start to think like you, we'd never know about our past and what happened back then.

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Very good points:

The thread is posted on The Chat Bar.

The chat bar is a place for off topics. Even then, its totally related to Tech.

The atomic bomb is a part of our history.

Why do you think its inappropriate???

The thread wasn't about celebrating the death of thousands of people but its about the bomb and the technology back then. And how tech have evolved.

This thread is about knowledge and nothing else.

The thread was started (I hope !!) to illustrate just how much MORE dangerous such weapons have become.

Abso-fricken-lutely 100% true & correct:

The only good thing about War is its' conclusion.
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Why are we discussing things that killed thousands of people? This thread should be deleted-woefully inappropriate.

because it was on a radio show and the OP thought it interesting to share. you dont like it - TOO BAD.

or you would be speaking japanese right now.

just imagine if they won WW2....

I am fed up with the trolls on this forum that are quick to hate anything that is not liberal or politically correct.

and you fukkers KNOW who you are.

jackieo while this thread is informitive and should not be pullded your fact facts are incorrect. it is conservitives that believe in political correctness ans would pull post like that, NOT liberals.
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partisan politics is played by all hard core parties...the only people who end up losing are the people the partisans of any stripe are supposed to be serving...not telling one and all to bend over and take it up their collective @sses just because they have political hay to make at your personal cost

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