The only way to end a war…and everything else
Such a depressing and terrifying topic, don't you think?
Fascinating and vast too…I’m hooked.
Nuclear weapons are easily the most powerful and lethal weapons invented by humans. They’re fascinating really; they’re capable of all these amazing things like fissuring atoms, generating fusion reactions, and unleashing immense amounts of energy. They can also do horrible things too, like wipe out billions of civilians, cause cancers, its mutations, and endanger the survival of the planet. But hey, life is full of contradictions, right?
Nuclear weapons make use of nuclear reactions- nuclear fission and nuclear fusion- to release enormous amounts of energy needed for well…destruction.
Nuclear fission is the splitting of a single nucleus into two lighter nuclei whereas, Nuclear fusion on the other hand is the joining of two nuclei to form a single, denser nucleus. But how is it that two contrasting occurrences yield the same output?
According to Einstein's theory of special relativity/ mass-energy equivalence(mass and energy are interchangeable and can be converted between forms), E = mc^2, both these reactions are bound to discharge energy as the mass of the products is lesser than that of the reactants and it is this difference that is converted into energy.
Fission weapons or atomic bombs make use of this idea to create chain reactions to generate enormous energy. The most common material used are isotopes of uranium and plutonium, namely uranium-235 and plutonium-239. How this works is fairly simple- a neutron hits one of these isotopes and splits into two smaller nuclei which in turn hit other nuclei and further break apart. This happens continually at an exponential rate until all the material is dispersed.
Fusion weapons or thermonuclear bombs are more effective in energy production but require a higher temperature and pressure to do so. These conditions are required to overcome the repulsive nature of the positive-positive nuclei while bonding. The most common material used are the isotopes of hydrogen, namely deuterium, and tritium.
Nuclear bombs have been detonated thousands of times but have been deployed in war only twice, that's one too many. The first one was dropped by the United state over Hiroshima, Japan in 1945. It was called Little Boy due to its small size and weight comparatively. It was also known to be named so as an allusion to Thin Man. The second nuclear bomb, Fat Man, was dropped once again by the US on Nagasaki, Japan the same year lesser than a month later. The name was such that it contrasted Little Boy and was also inspired by the British PM, Winston Churchill’s round physique.
Today the use of nuclear bombs is considered one of the most serious threats to humanity that impose long-lasting irreparable damage to people, animals, and the planet, and is thus imperative to prevent its use with absolutely no exceptions.
