Reply #69: Those Were Not 0.6kT Bombs Though

[ProfessorGAC]

My point is that this is not a very big detonation, by nuke standards. This is a conventional explosive. Doesn't have the core temperature of a fission or fusion device, so the updraft is not hyperaccelerated in the first microseconds; the total energy release over unit volume of airspace is a fraction of a nuke; and the the plasma wave that is heading down toward the ground is not hitting with even 5% of the velocity, so the vertical rebound would be of far lower force.

This is a big nasty bomb, to be sure. But, the tests your mom saw were likely 100 to 5000 times more powerful than this device, and at lower velocity. (Nukes are measured in the joule equivalent of 1000 or 1 million metric tons of TNT. The higher velocity makes the bomb even more destructive than a truly equivalent amount of TNT.

I guess i'm doubting the shock and awe thing, because i don't think this bomb would be that "awesome" from 85 miles away. I wouldn't want to be standing next to it, but 0.6kT from 85 miles away is not really that tremendous an energy release to make a mushroom cloud like the huge ones your mom saw.
The Professor