Would be the minimum amount of matter?

[Stylesjl]

In order to completely vapourise an Earth sized planet with the same density as Earth?

Because Energy equals mass times the speed of light squared means that approx 1 gram of mass can release a 21 kiloton yeild

So what kind of mass would you require to destroy the earth at the bare minimum?

 

[GenMarshall]

Planning on creating a planet killer weapon?

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

Do you need to vaporize it, anyways? I imagine all that it takes to render the place useless it breaking up the surface into smaller pieces.

 

[ybbor]

if you could get a chain reaction going, it would require exactly one extremely small piece of matter.

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

If you could get a chain reaction going, it would require exactly one extremely small piece of matter.

Then it's not a question of matter but of energy; even I know that, and I didn't even take high school physics.

 

[Perfection]

1.2 × 10^15 Kg according to this:
http://qntm.org/data


I did some calculations by hand awhile back and got
6x10^16 Kg

So it's a lot.

 

[History_Buff]

Well, if you wanted to really get rid of it, the cleanest way would be to use 5.9742 x 10^24 Kg of anti-matter. Where you would get that is beyond me.

Of course, if you just wanted to bust the earth up a bunch, you would need much less explosive power, and just how much you need would be dependent on where the charge was placed, and the internal structure of the earth. And simply wiping out all life on earth by atmospheric ignition would be another figure entirely as well.

 

[Turner]

1.2 × 10^15 Kg according to this:
http://qntm.org/data


I did some calculations by hand awhile back and got
6x10^16 Kg

So it's a lot.

Pfft. You don't need that much. All you need is an Illudium Q-36 Space Modulator.


(Actually, I'd trust Perf this one time on that. )

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

I would ask Grand Moff Tarkin on this one.

 

[Stegyre]

Pfft. You don't need that much. All you need is an Illudium Q-36 Space Modulator.

My wife wanted one of those for Christmas, for some reason. Do you have a link for where I could pick one up. (Her birthday is coming up in September, and I'd probably better start saving now.)

 

[Bill3000]

Because Energy equals mass times the speed of light squared means that approx 1 gram of mass can release a 21 kiloton yeild

Only if you are using a source of energy that does not rely upon thermodyamics. And we really havn't really mastered antimatter, which does have 100% efficiency.

 

[Turner]

My wife wanted one of those for Christmas, for some reason. Do you have a link for where I could pick one up. (Her birthday is coming up in September, and I'd probably better start saving now.)

Sorry, you're on your own.

 

[Mr. Dictator]

Are there things that scientists just shouldnt research?

ohwell, curiousity killed the cat....but sometimes curiousity could make the cat exctinct.

 

[El_Machinae]

Well, complete elimination would require an equivalent amount of antimatter (maybe purchase it from the guy who built a supercollider around the sun). IIRC, to get the planet to blow up like Alderaan did, you need a great deal of energy.

www.stardestroyer.net has a calculation of the Death Star's main weapon

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

I would like to note that, in Forces of Corruption right now, my Death Star is 3 minutes and 35 seconds from being built. I'll tell you how that works out after I blow up every Consortium planet .

 

[Abaddon]

just pull the north pole out and the whole world will collapse.

 

[Leifmk]

As has already been suggested, it's not a question of how much mass you'd need, but how much energy you could apply effectively, basically regardless of how you went about it.

The gravitational binding energy of the Earth is roughly 2 * 10^32 J. That is how much it would take to blow the planet apart (yes, like Alderaan), leaving nothing but an expanding cloud of vaporized rock and metals (some bits of which might eventually coalesce into a new asteroid belt). You'd not get any flying bits of solid rock since everything would melt and vaporize.

Blasting the Earth's crust off into space would take about one percent of that (about 2 * 10^30 J). This would take care of the oceans and the atmosphere as well. It would also melt the crust (which alone would take only about 3 * 10^28 J, and in itself should be more than sufficient to sterilize the planet and make it permanently uninhabitable -- the long-term result might look much like Venus) so again we'd not get any bits of solid rock flying off.