Posted by Ranger Considering that 1 kilo of each meeting would have the explosive force of several (I THINK that the number is 17) Hiroshima-sized nukes, I think that the explosions would be a bit more....impressive.
|
Heh. Sounds a *bit* small...
e=mc^2
m = 2 kg
c = 3 x 10^8 So 1kg of Antimatter reacted with Matter would yield 1.8 x 10^17 Joules.
For reference, 1 megaton is 4.2 x 10^15 Joules.
So the reaction releases 43 MegaTons.
"Little Boy", the Hiroshima bomb, was rated as 12.5 KiloTons (and was VERY inefficient so was the yield was actually much lower, but let us ignore that).
So
43,000KT/12.5KT = 3440 "Little Boys", which is quite larger than 17 .
However, back to the world of nuclear (and thermo-, since we are in the present), the Soviets have already detonated a weapon much more powerful, an aircraft-deliverable 57 MegaTon thermonuclear device (Novaya Zemlya; October 30, 1961) which was actually a scaled-down version of a 100MegaTon device.
This weapon was the largest (known) nuclear test ever, yielding
(57,000KT - 43,000KT)/12.5KT = 1120 "Hiroshima-sized" nukes difference to an anti-/matter reaction of 1Kg. Although, to make up for this difference, you could add another
3440/1120 = 3.0 so .3Kg 300grams of antimatter to make up for the 14MegaTon difference.
Since most weapons would be expected to have at least 30Kg of fuel in a small warhead, the following comparison shows the real potential.
Ok, solving for yield using Plutonium on a 100% efficiency design only fission;
Molar Mass Pu = 239g ; Mass we have is 30kg
And using 3.2 x 10^(-11) ans energy per fission
And with the energy from 1KT being 4.20 x 10^12 joules
30,000g/239g = 125.52Molmoles x (atoms per mole) = Number of fissions at 100% efficiency
125.52 x (6.02 x 10^23) = 7.56 x 10^25 atoms to fiss
fission x energy per fission = Energy
(7.56x10^25)(3.2 x 10^(-11)) = 2.42 x 10^15 joules
Energy we have/Energy in a KT = Amount in KT
(2.42x10^15)/(4.20x10^12) = 5.76x10^2 or 576KiloTons in a pure fission weapon with 100% efficiency using 30Kg fuel. Whereas in 30Kg of Antimatter and Matter;
Energy in 2Kg (from above) converted to 30kg and then divided into MegaTons.
(1.8x10^17x(15))/(4.2 x 10^15) = 6.43 x 10^2or 643 MegaTons in an anti-/matter weapon with 100% efficiency (much more likely then the Pu weapon) using 30Kg fuel.