Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Tsar Bomba in volume TNT

The Tsar Bomba is the largest, most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated. Developed by the Soviet Union, a bomb of about 50 megatons.

TNT equivalent is a method of quantifying the energy released in explosions. The tonne of TNT is used as a unit of energy, approximately equivalent to the energy released in the detonation of this amount of TNT.
Megaton of TNT (Mt) = 4.1868 x 1015 J

TNT has a density of 1.654 g/cm^3. This means the Tsar Bomba is equivalent to a cube with sides of 311.5m made of pure TNT. This cube is shown in the following figure on the map of Manhattan:

The Tsar Bomba compared to other nuclear bombs detonated:
Video of 160 kg TNT explosion:

Video of Tsar Bomba explosion:

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