know your nukes folks.
I think people try and bring up the difference between "H-bombs" and "nukes" a bit too frequently... I'll try and explain some weapons a bit better and in detail.
For starters I think some of you dont really realize that "splitting the atom" isnt really all that special, substances that are radioactive often undergo spontaneous fission and this is why most elements that are radioactive will be warm to the touch (atoms are splitting willy-nilly everywhere causing the heat). If you were to pack a few hundred pounds of plutonium in your garrage and leave it there. Within minutes that plutonium would start to melt and from there cause a "melt down" (yea, that is what a meltdown actually is... NOT a pseudo-nuclear blast).
2.) Radioactive elements and compounds (with the occasional rare exception) Do *NOT* GLOW *Uranium is NOT A GLOWING GREEN METAL ***EVER***. The green myth about uranium is probably due to uranium being used at one time as a way to make green glass... btw this glass is perfectly safe.
Any radioactive stubstance in too much quantity will reach a critical mass... (yes critical mass refers to a point where an out of control reaction occurs that can result in a meltdown... (NOT, once again a nuclear blast)
a Nuclear explosion can only occur via "Super Critical Mass" which can only take place by compressing something like U235 or Pu239 into such a small point as to cause enough fission to take place in a short enough ammount of time to cause an explosion instead of simply melting. This means that man doesnt split the atom, the element itself does and the trick is making trillions of atoms split in a short period of time before the heat would cause a malfunction.
When it comes to hydrogen weapons, an ICBM *CAN* use a staged thermonuclear device but in reality not every missile out there carries one...
a staged thermonuclear device is also by the way essentially just a traditional nuclear weapon with a secondary hydrogen payload placed below it. There is no such thing as the "H-bomb being different from a nuke"
The idea is that the detonation caused by the first stage nuclear device (always an implosive as opposed to a gun type) will cause the natural U-238 tamper surrounding the hydrogen fuel (fusion juice) to abblate despite the increased pressure caused by the initial X-Ray burst in the first device's detonation. The inevitable and intended result is that a fissionable U-235 "sparkplug" surrounding the actual deuterium fusion juice will heat up and undergo spontaneous fission that will induce an artificial (an obviously temporary) enviroment that will be so damn hot it creates a sustained fusion reaction that can exceed at least a 5-10% yield from the fuel.
This means that dual stage hydrogen devices are completely dependent on the induced reaction and can be designed to achieve a limitless number of yields... A nuclear weapon can be small enough to take out a single city block or be built to the current record size of 50 megatons in the case of the Tsar Bomba test by the USSR. It should be noted that there is no limit to the potential size of a blast... Tsar Bomba's design could have easily produced a 100 megaton blast with little increased size and still fitting in a the space of a small shed.
It should also be noted that Fusion weapons dont derive even on average 25% of their yield from fusion, instead the fusion helps to facilitate a more efficient level of fission in the first stage, sparkplug, and even the tamper. The result means that a HUGE amount of fission can take place and thus a massive blast is the result.
From here it should be known that *ALL* modern nuclear weapons traditionally not considered "thermonuclear" still use fusion to allow for a more predictable and greater yield, this is called "boosting" and is done by filling the "pit" of a weapon with deuterium and tritium... when the button is pushed a small amount of fusion takes places and allows for a 'cleaner' blast even if only 2-3% of the released energy comes from fusion.
Now, I would like possibily to see more nuclear options aviable in Civ...
Neutron bombs are probably out of the question despite a definite 'coolness' effect they have... popular culture assumes that these things leave buildings intact and just kill the living things in an area... in reality neutron bombs are designed to allow a weapon to kill the occupents of multiple armored targets in a large area... the blast area of the original weapon is still going to be destinctly destructive and result in a nasty little crater.
'salted' bombs would probably be a more realistic option... the idea of a salted bomb is to stuff it with a tamper that will become irradiated and fall back to earth in the form of a massive quantity of fallout... the nice things is that these things can be modified to have a short lived half-life. In the case of a gold loaded bomb that half life can be as short as 2 days... On the other hand a "cobalt bomb" will result in an area being unusable for years and on top of that seed huge quantities of fallout in a large area.
I think what I am saying is for Civ 4 to include future forums of nuclear weapons the typical shout out for 'H-bombs' is not only tired but innacurate to how a weapon actually functions...
Yes, I realize it is creepy i know this king of crap.
I think people try and bring up the difference between "H-bombs" and "nukes" a bit too frequently... I'll try and explain some weapons a bit better and in detail.
For starters I think some of you dont really realize that "splitting the atom" isnt really all that special, substances that are radioactive often undergo spontaneous fission and this is why most elements that are radioactive will be warm to the touch (atoms are splitting willy-nilly everywhere causing the heat). If you were to pack a few hundred pounds of plutonium in your garrage and leave it there. Within minutes that plutonium would start to melt and from there cause a "melt down" (yea, that is what a meltdown actually is... NOT a pseudo-nuclear blast).
2.) Radioactive elements and compounds (with the occasional rare exception) Do *NOT* GLOW *Uranium is NOT A GLOWING GREEN METAL ***EVER***. The green myth about uranium is probably due to uranium being used at one time as a way to make green glass... btw this glass is perfectly safe.
Any radioactive stubstance in too much quantity will reach a critical mass... (yes critical mass refers to a point where an out of control reaction occurs that can result in a meltdown... (NOT, once again a nuclear blast)
a Nuclear explosion can only occur via "Super Critical Mass" which can only take place by compressing something like U235 or Pu239 into such a small point as to cause enough fission to take place in a short enough ammount of time to cause an explosion instead of simply melting. This means that man doesnt split the atom, the element itself does and the trick is making trillions of atoms split in a short period of time before the heat would cause a malfunction.
When it comes to hydrogen weapons, an ICBM *CAN* use a staged thermonuclear device but in reality not every missile out there carries one...
a staged thermonuclear device is also by the way essentially just a traditional nuclear weapon with a secondary hydrogen payload placed below it. There is no such thing as the "H-bomb being different from a nuke"
The idea is that the detonation caused by the first stage nuclear device (always an implosive as opposed to a gun type) will cause the natural U-238 tamper surrounding the hydrogen fuel (fusion juice) to abblate despite the increased pressure caused by the initial X-Ray burst in the first device's detonation. The inevitable and intended result is that a fissionable U-235 "sparkplug" surrounding the actual deuterium fusion juice will heat up and undergo spontaneous fission that will induce an artificial (an obviously temporary) enviroment that will be so damn hot it creates a sustained fusion reaction that can exceed at least a 5-10% yield from the fuel.
This means that dual stage hydrogen devices are completely dependent on the induced reaction and can be designed to achieve a limitless number of yields... A nuclear weapon can be small enough to take out a single city block or be built to the current record size of 50 megatons in the case of the Tsar Bomba test by the USSR. It should be noted that there is no limit to the potential size of a blast... Tsar Bomba's design could have easily produced a 100 megaton blast with little increased size and still fitting in a the space of a small shed.
It should also be noted that Fusion weapons dont derive even on average 25% of their yield from fusion, instead the fusion helps to facilitate a more efficient level of fission in the first stage, sparkplug, and even the tamper. The result means that a HUGE amount of fission can take place and thus a massive blast is the result.
From here it should be known that *ALL* modern nuclear weapons traditionally not considered "thermonuclear" still use fusion to allow for a more predictable and greater yield, this is called "boosting" and is done by filling the "pit" of a weapon with deuterium and tritium... when the button is pushed a small amount of fusion takes places and allows for a 'cleaner' blast even if only 2-3% of the released energy comes from fusion.
Now, I would like possibily to see more nuclear options aviable in Civ...
Neutron bombs are probably out of the question despite a definite 'coolness' effect they have... popular culture assumes that these things leave buildings intact and just kill the living things in an area... in reality neutron bombs are designed to allow a weapon to kill the occupents of multiple armored targets in a large area... the blast area of the original weapon is still going to be destinctly destructive and result in a nasty little crater.
'salted' bombs would probably be a more realistic option... the idea of a salted bomb is to stuff it with a tamper that will become irradiated and fall back to earth in the form of a massive quantity of fallout... the nice things is that these things can be modified to have a short lived half-life. In the case of a gold loaded bomb that half life can be as short as 2 days... On the other hand a "cobalt bomb" will result in an area being unusable for years and on top of that seed huge quantities of fallout in a large area.
I think what I am saying is for Civ 4 to include future forums of nuclear weapons the typical shout out for 'H-bombs' is not only tired but innacurate to how a weapon actually functions...
Yes, I realize it is creepy i know this king of crap.
good read tho. oh and MI6 have a few questions to ask you they on there way lol
