Muristek
As we sleepwalk into WWIII, it would be helpful to understand some of the basic physics pertaining to nuclear weapons to better comprehend what our "leaders” are getting us into. Nuclear bombs (developed during WWII) release energy derived from nuclear reactions, similarly to what occurs in the sun. Humans have used chemical explosives for centuries since the invention of gunpowder and often view nuclear reactions in a similar (but wrong) light. Chemical explosions entail electronic rearrangements (i.e chemical reactions) that rapidly release energy. The energies released are typically at the electronVolt or eV level per molecule. The typical energy of photon visible light (for reference) is a few eVs. Nuclear reactions, on the other hand, involve the rearrangement of nucleons (protons and neutrons) and quarks (constituents of nucleons) in the nucleus (where most of the atom's mass is concentrated). Rearrangement energies are typically in the mega-electron Volt or MeV level per nucleus. Thus, energies released in nuclear reactions are typically one million times (or more) greater than the energy released in chemical explosions.
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