whats the most powerful nuclear weapon now? who has it ? how does it compare to bomb on hiroshima? and .......

Question

what damage would it cause?

Answer 1

Well ...back in the sixties I heard talk of USSR having weapons in 50 -100 megaton range.
I am drinking my morning coffee and don't want to do arithmetic..
the Hiroshima bomb was about 16-20 kilotons...
...
so say 50 million divided by 16000 and that will tell you how much more powerful the bigger one is....
USSR's targeting was not as accurate as ours...hence the larger weapons...

One Air burst of nuke can fry all digital electronics through electro magnetic pulse.....
no communications...cell phones..atms..
computers will have their circuitry fried
as well as electronic ignitions etc etc....
as for the rest of it....
it would not be pretty.

link to wikipedia article on EMP
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_pulse

excerpt from link
"A high-altitude nuclear detonation produces an immediate flux of gamma rays from the nuclear reactions within the device. These photons in turn produce high energy free electrons by Compton scattering at altitudes between (roughly) 20 and 40 km. These electrons are then trapped in the Earth's magnetic field, giving rise to an oscillating electric current. This current is asymmetric in general and gives rise to a rapidly rising radiated electromagnetic field called an electromagnetic pulse (EMP). Because the electrons are trapped essentially simultaneously, a very large electromagnetic source radiates coherently.
The pulse can easily span continent-sized areas, and this radiation can affect systems on land, sea, and air. The first recorded EMP incident accompanied a high-altitude nuclear test over the South Pacific and resulted in power system failures as far away as Hawaii. A large device detonated at 400–500 km (250 to 312 miles) over Kansas would affect all of CONUS. The signal from such an event extends to the visual horizon as seen from the burst point. "


notice the map on the right side of page.

Answer 2

The bomb dropped on Hiroshima was a fission bomb. Hydrogen bombs use the principal of nuclear fussion and can be more than a thousand times more powerful than a fission bomb. The empires harboring these weapons of mass destruction are the United States of America, Russia, France, United Kingdom, China, and India

Answer 3

The strategic nukes of today are in the 500 kiloton range, the Hiroshima/Nagasaki bombs were in the 15-20 kiloton range. In the 60s, the USSR built a 100 megaton bomb, but that has since been dismantled.

Answer 4

Well..."Little Boy" and "Fat Man", the two A-Bombs dropped on Japan, had yields of 15 and 21 kilotons of TNT. (1 kiloton = 1000 tons of TNT.)

India and Pakistan's weapon tests had 12 and 9 kiltons of yeald, respectively.

"Castle Bravo", a US test, was 15 megatons (15,000 kilotons, 15 million tons of TNT)

"Csar Bomba", the largest weapon ever tested, had a yield of 50 megatons.

You saw what happened with 15 kilotons - multiply that devastation by a thousand, and you have a pretty ugly picture.

By the late 80's, the USSR reputedly had over 40, 000 warheads.

Edit: destroy a large city? affect a small country? That's a gross underestimation. The U.S. stockpile alone is enough to render the entire surface of the planet inhospitable to anything except ants and cockroaches.

Answer 5

I'm not sure it exists today or if it was theory and speculation, but I recall an article about a single neutron bomb that could start a chain reaction igniting all the oxygen in the earths atmosphere essentially turning the planet into a giant fireball and killing all life.

Answer 6

The [CLASSIFIED] encased Hydrogen Bomb is held by both [CLASSIFIED] and the United States. It is thousands of times more powerful than Hiroshima, and could theoretically [CLASSIFIED] the earth's [CLASSIFIED].

Answer 7

My guess would be the US with enough power to destroy a large city and effect a small country.

Edit: I am referring to one weapon, not the whole stockpile.

Answer 8

Me after a curry

Answer 9

to many countries have it

Answer 10

shut up