• Question: Why are atomic bombs so powerful?

    Asked by 433enek48 to Emma, Karla, Shane, Stephen, Yang on 13 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Emma Hanley

      Emma Hanley answered on 13 Nov 2017:

      Atomic bombs work by using the power released by splitting the nucleus of an atomic nuclei. A single free neutron can strike the nucleus of an atom that is radioactive it can knock 2 or 3 neutrons free and this continues to happen. Energy is then released when these neutrons become free when this happens they hit other nuclei of atoms and causes them to split too. This is called a chain reaction. When a radioactive atom like Uranium splits it releases energy in the form of heat and also radiation.

    • Photo: Stephen Rhatigan

      Stephen Rhatigan answered on 13 Nov 2017:

      Atoms are made of a central nucleus (protons and neutrons) with electrons orbiting around. Atoms join together to make molecules by forming chemical bonds.
      In an explosive material like TNT or C4 the energy released in the explosion is stored in chemical bonds prior to detonation.
      For example, TNT is made of molecules of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen. When you detonate TNT the molecules of TNT break up into smaller molecules like water, nitrogen gas and others. The energy that held these molecules together in the form of TNT is released as light and heat.
      For an atomic bomb, the energy that is released after detonation was originally stored in the nucleus of large unstable elements like uranium.
      In an atomic bomb the energy is released through a fission reaction: a large atom breaks into 2 or more smaller atoms. In this case the energy that held the large unstable nucleus together is released as light and heat.
      The reason atomic bombs are so powerful is because much more energy is stored in the nucleus than can be stored in chemical bonds.

    • Photo: Karla Dussan

      Karla Dussan answered on 14 Nov 2017:

      The explanations by @Emma and @Stephen are great. I would just add a particular difference between chemical reactions of explosive materials (like TNT) and the nuclear reactions in an atomic bomb… When TNT explodes, that is when that mixture of carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen gets oxidised and explotes, after you get exactly the same amount of initial carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen … Mass is conserved. The elements are just re-arranged into different molecules by the interactions of their electrons. In a nuclear explosion, mass is not always conserved, because part of the mass of the element (like uranium) will be converted into energy and you will end up actually with a different element after (since part of its nucleus was completely transformed).

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