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The blast wind at sea level may exceed 1,000 km/h, or ~300 m/s, approaching the speed of sound in air. The range for blast effects increases with the explosive yield of the weapon and also depends on the burst altitude.
Blast waves cause damage by a combination of the significant compression of the air in front of the wave (forming a shock front) and the subsequent wind that follows. [15] A blast wave travels faster than the speed of sound, and the passage of the shock wave usually lasts only a few milliseconds. Like other types of explosions, a blast wave can ...
A nuclear explosion is an explosion that occurs as a result of the rapid release of energy from a high-speed nuclear reaction.The driving reaction may be nuclear fission or nuclear fusion or a multi-stage cascading combination of the two, though to date all fusion-based weapons have used a fission device to initiate fusion, and a pure fusion weapon remains a hypothetical device.
The first three arrive almost simultaneously, since they travel at light-speed, though thermal radiation can last several seconds and inflict severe burns miles from a blast site.
The mass of gas plus entrained moist air eventually reaches an altitude where it is no longer of lower density than the surrounding air; at this point, it disperses, drifting back down, which results in fallout following a nuclear blast. The stabilization altitude depends strongly on the profiles of the temperature, dew point, and wind shear in ...
The Cold War ended in 1991, but the looming threat of nuclear attack lives on with more than 14,900 nuclear weapons wielded by nine nations.. A terrorist-caused nuclear detonation is one of 15 ...
Detonation velocity is the speed with which the detonation shock wave travels through the explosive. It is a key, directly measurable indicator of explosive performance, but depends on density which must always be specified, and may be too low if the test charge diameter is not large enough.
For reference, 5.0 psi is enough to destroy city areas while instruments at the blast site recorded 83 psi at approximately 190 feet (58 m). To understand the destructive forces, such an overpressure would correspond to wind speeds greater than 1,000 miles per hour (1,600 km/h), [ 4 ] and would be equivalent to a 1.0 megaton blast at 3,000 feet ...