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What effect would the bomb have?

Big crater
World annihilation
Everyone is dead

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Author Topic: Effects of an antimatter bomb? VOTE!  (Read 14314 times)

Darvi

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Re: Effects of an antimatter bomb? VOTE!
« Reply #30 on: May 12, 2011, 04:13:26 pm »

Yeah, it's mostly hellish burnination.
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alway

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Re: Effects of an antimatter bomb? VOTE!
« Reply #31 on: May 12, 2011, 04:14:44 pm »

Uh. Looking at the figures leads me to believe that this sort of scale would destroy more than just the earth.

Just how wrong where Silfurdreki's calculations? If we're still even remotely able to compare the blast to a supernova, we're probably looking at causing damage, or at least effecting the sun. If that happens, there would probably be a chain reaction. Possibly a second from Jupiter as well.

Basically you could say I'm just asking: How much is this blast going to restructure the inner solar-system? :P
Their calculations were within about an order of magnitude of correct, but the comparison with a supernova was incorrect. Comparing 10^19J to 10^46J is farther off than comparing the antimatter weapon with the lifting power of an ant.
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Simmura McCrea

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Re: Effects of an antimatter bomb? VOTE!
« Reply #32 on: May 12, 2011, 04:15:24 pm »

Uh. Looking at the figures leads me to believe that this sort of scale would destroy more than just the earth.

Just how wrong where Silfurdreki's calculations? If we're still even remotely able to compare the blast to a supernova, we're probably looking at causing damage, or at least effecting the sun. If that happens, there would probably be a chain reaction. Possibly a second from Jupiter as well.

Basically you could say I'm just asking: How much is this blast going to restructure the inner solar-system? :P
He said half, it's actually less than the square root. Sodding big boom, but I don't think we're talking planet busting, given that (IIRC) an object the size of Mars hit the earth at one point.
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MetalSlimeHunt

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Re: Effects of an antimatter bomb? VOTE!
« Reply #33 on: May 12, 2011, 04:15:26 pm »

Basically you could say I'm just asking: How much is this blast going to restructure the inner solar-system? :P
The other remaining planets will have to shamefully invite Pluto back into the fold to boost their numbers after the unfortunate deaths of Earth, Venus, Mercury, Mars, and Jupiter. Along with Sol being partially blown away. (Alright, I'm uttlery exaggerating there.)
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Bauglir

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Re: Effects of an antimatter bomb? VOTE!
« Reply #34 on: May 12, 2011, 04:25:49 pm »

The blast itself may arguably not cause a huge earthquake because of vaporizing a major part of its area of effect, but if the non-supernova-related figures in this thread are accurate, the crater might be large enough to cause a minor apocalypse when the Earth tries to readopt hydrostatic equilibrium because it is no longer approximately spherical (or, more accurately, whatever you call the shape that it approximately is because of bulging out around the equator because of its rotation).
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Fayrik

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Re: Effects of an antimatter bomb? VOTE!
« Reply #35 on: May 12, 2011, 04:30:44 pm »

He said half, it's actually less than the square root. Sodding big boom, but I don't think we're talking planet busting, given that (IIRC) an object the size of Mars hit the earth at one point.
Yes, it hit Earth. I believe the object you're referring to is now known as "The Moon".
...And, if I remember correctly, to recover from that sort of impact, the planet had to undergo (And already was undergoing?) a semi-molten state. The Earth is now not so semi-molten, so theoretically that kind of damage would either tear the crust up or even go as far as to destroy the crust entirely.
Of course, I do believe that the atmosphere can take less punishment than that.

The other remaining planets will have to shamefully invite Pluto back into the fold to boost their numbers after the unfortunate deaths of Earth, Venus, Mercury, Mars, and Jupiter.
I'd hope that they'd invite Eris in first, because, at least Eris doesn't orbit it's moon.
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Re: Effects of an antimatter bomb? VOTE!
« Reply #36 on: May 12, 2011, 04:32:22 pm »

It would be a worldwide catastrophe on the scale of a major asteroid impact. It would end the modern era. Life would continue, but possibly not human life, or even multicellular life. The crater would be a significant geological structure for the rest of earth's existance.

Luckily for us, assembly 250 lbs of antimatter, even antihydrogen, would be more difficult than anything ever done in history.

Anyone wanting to attack with that much force would simply use a swarm of asteroids, which would distribute the same amount of energy over a wide area, avoiding a hypothetical botched blast leaving some part of the planet's surface remaining.

The power of an antimatter bomb is that you could easily make a soda can capable of destroying a city, not a regular bomb capable of destroying a planet.
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Criptfeind

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Re: Effects of an antimatter bomb? VOTE!
« Reply #37 on: May 12, 2011, 04:37:43 pm »

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Re: Effects of an antimatter bomb? VOTE!
« Reply #38 on: May 12, 2011, 04:48:18 pm »

"easily"

Not so easy really.

RELATIVELY easy. It's easier than making a chemical warhead that size that can destroy a city, for instance.
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Virex

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Re: Effects of an antimatter bomb? VOTE!
« Reply #39 on: May 12, 2011, 04:54:07 pm »

1*1019 J = 10 EJ (Exajoule) and that's approximately ten times the energy released in the earthquake that recently hit Japan...
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Criptfeind

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Re: Effects of an antimatter bomb? VOTE!
« Reply #40 on: May 12, 2011, 04:56:14 pm »

"easily"

Not so easy really.

RELATIVELY easy. It's easier than making a chemical warhead that size that can destroy a city, for instance.
No it is not.

Not at all.

CERN has so far used about 1/1,000,000,000 of a gram of antimatter, and that has cost them over one hundred million dollars.

It would be most cost effective at this point to hire a guy to go around hit stuff with a hammer until the city was reduced to rubble, and it would most likely take less time as well.
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Re: Effects of an antimatter bomb? VOTE!
« Reply #41 on: May 12, 2011, 05:01:11 pm »

Talkin' 'bout ENERGY DENSITY here people. Nothin' else. I know it's tough to make Antimatter!
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RF

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Re: Effects of an antimatter bomb? VOTE!
« Reply #42 on: May 12, 2011, 05:40:43 pm »

If it's a solid? Dropping a chunk of anti-uranium from a plane or something would make a mildly warm column as it plumets to the ground and "digs" into the earth due to the annihilation. It might melt something, but I doubt it. It'd be far too dispersed and most of the energy would sink into the ground when it hit it. It might do something really dangerous like cause volcanic eruptions (it probably would in the area it's dropped, at least), but it'd depend on how deep it'd penetrate.

Now, if you had a mixing mechanism that perfectly mixed antimatter and matter? And then released a massive burst of heat? Yeah, you'd probably melt a pretty large city and turn the earth for miles around to glass.

You'd also probably create massive global warming issues either way.

The issue is that it'd be best as a planet destroying bomb. Not something you'd use on your own planet. Drop a chunk of it inside a tungsten shell with a drill on into a planet, detonate as it reaches magma and voila. You'd've melted a significant part of the planetary crust and probably done something seriously dangerous.

EDIT: Really, the main thing for the top one would be how quickly the uranium vaporises. If it vaporised immediately upon touching atmosphere? Yeah, welcome to hell. If the annihliation formed some sort of a crush around it? Expect it to burrow into the earth.
« Last Edit: May 12, 2011, 05:43:47 pm by RF »
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MetalSlimeHunt

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Re: Effects of an antimatter bomb? VOTE!
« Reply #43 on: May 12, 2011, 06:02:54 pm »

Really, the main thing for the top one would be how quickly the uranium vaporises. If it vaporised immediately upon touching atmosphere? Yeah, welcome to hell. If the annihliation formed some sort of a crush around it? Expect it to burrow into the earth.
Any antimatter atom will instantly be converted to energy along with its counterpart if it comes into contact with any matter atom, releasing massive amounts of energy. So it's a matter (badum-tish!) of how much anti-uranium there is.

I feel it is worth pointing out that Antimatter is the most expensive substance known to humanity.
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RF

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Re: Effects of an antimatter bomb? VOTE!
« Reply #44 on: May 12, 2011, 06:07:05 pm »

Any antimatter atom will instantly be converted to energy along with its counterpart if it comes into contact with any matter atom, releasing massive amounts of energy. So it's a matter (badum-tish!) of how much anti-uranium there is.

I feel it is worth pointing out that Antimatter is the most expensive substance known to humanity.

But there's my point. You have to remember that air is going to be considerably less dense than uranium and therefore have less atoms.
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