how much could a nuclear/atomic bomb destroy?

Question

can it destroy up to a county or a only a city?

Answer 1

The destructive force of a nuclear bomb is minor compared to the long term devastation caused by radiation and nuclear fallout

Answer 2

We have all heard this in the form of guns do not kill people people kill people (with guns) before but bombs do not kill people governments, militaries and anyone who can obtain this capability has the potential to do great harm using a nuclear bomb to all of humanity. Nuclear fall out affects everyone to some lesser or greater extent depending on promixity to the blast zone.

It depends upon the size of the bomb in all actuality. The main concern is the fall out and possibility of nuclear winter afterwards. One does not have to destroy the earth with a bomb for it to be eventually be destroyed by a nuclear war. The fall out along with all that could be kicked up into the upper atmosphere layers could cut off the sunlight enough and long enough that all that is on earth could eventually die from nuclear related causes.

Anyone can destroy. Destruction is much easier than construction. E.g. break a glass then try to put it back together it will require great energy to melt the glass then make it into a form again. I think an additional question would be how much effort and expense is required to reconstruct after such devastation and destruction if even possible.

Answer 3

I dont think it should even be a number.

The whole humanity would be at stake should a nuclear bomb drop.

eg: If N Korea drops a nuke on washington DC, does it really matter how much destruction it will cause? It will lead to a world war where more nukes will be flying and ultimately, everybody loses.

People fight for freedom. But when there is no earth left and nothing but nuclear waste and destruction, is that the freedom that we are fighting for? A pile of rubble and garbage?

Whatever the destructive force a nuclear / atomic bomb could destroy, it is actually destroying the fabric of the entire human race. so in terms of numbers, it would be everthing.

Answer 4

That all depends entirely on the size of the nuclear device. By today's standards the two bombs dropped on Japan were small -- 15 kilotons, equivalent to 15,000 tons of TNT in the case of the Hiroshima bomb and 21 kilotons, 21,000 tons in the case of the Nagasaki bomb. The bomb tested by N. Korea was less than 1 kiloton. A warhead of that size would have a blast radius of approx. 1/13th of a mile, with resulting fires spread across 1/2 mile radius. But the fallout of radiation can spread widely and cause deaths weeks after the explosion. Presently the United States is assumed to possess 10,000 nuclear warheads ranging from 100-500 kilotons.

Answer 5

Although the film wasn't really any good in the sense of story line you must have heard of Skyline maybe even seen it involves aliens etc. That wasn't even one of the large nuclear bombs and it Flattened Los Angeles in well not very long and that's not exactly a small city but one big enough could probably devastate a country look at Japan in the world war the horrible effects it left on their country. Hydrogen bombs are far worst from what i've read and wouldn't be surprised if in the future as a scare tactic for powerful countries they'll have a single bomb that could flatten the planets crust but why they use them for these reasons is beyond me. In the whole nuclear weapons can be a great breakthrough in science if used against something like a comet, asteroid who knows one day we might need them for that so we should seriously worry about space doing us harm than world wars just my opinion.

Answer 6

The long term effects of a nuclear fallout is a lot worse then an atomic bomb. Nuclear disasters cause mutations, cancer, birth defects for many years and of course depending on how bad it is the area can't have anyone living there for how ever many hundreds or thousands of years. I recall Chernobyl not being safe for at least another couple of thousand years. Radio Activity still very high in the area.

Answer 7

A whole city, think of Hiroshema, Japan. The Americans dropped an Atomic Bomb. A whole community was distroyed and years later, their children were born with birth defects. On the morning of 6 August 1945, the United States Army Air Forces dropped the nuclear weapon "Little Boy" on the city of Hiroshima, followed three days later by the detonation of the "Fat Man" bomb over Nagasaki, Japan during World War II against the Empire of Japan, part of the Axis Powers alliance, resulting in a mass killing of over 200,000 Japanese civilians.

In estimating the death toll from the attacks, there are several factors that make it difficult to arrive at reliable figures: inadequacies in the records given the confusion of the times, the many victims who died months or years after the bombing as a result of radiation exposure, and the pressure to either exaggerate or minimize the numbers, depending upon political agenda. That said, it is estimated that by December 1945, as many as 140,000 had died in Hiroshima by the bomb and its associated effects.[1][2] In Nagasaki, roughly 74,000 people died of the bomb and its after-effects with the death toll from two bombings around 214,000 people.[3][4] In both cities, the overwhelming majority of the deaths were those of civilians.

The role of the bombings in Japan's surrender, as well as the effects and justification of them, have been subject to much debate. In the U.S., the prevailing view is that the bombings ended the war months sooner than would otherwise have been the case, saving many lives that would have been lost on both sides if the planned invasion of Japan had taken place.[5] In Japan, the general public tends to think that the bombings were unnecessary, as Japanese civilian leadership was covertly seeking an end to hostilities.

Eight days after the bombings on August 14, 1945 Japan surrendered to the Allied Powers ending World War II.[

Answer 8

It would depend on the size. Atomic weapons are measured by comparasion to TNT so a one kiloton bomb is equal to 1000 tons of TNT...but a megaton is equal to a million tons of TNT. The size of the detonation is only one factor. There are aerial detonations, surface detonations and subsurface detonations. An aerial detonation is the more powerfu force in radiation, heat wave and area covered, a surface detonation is more contained because of obstacles...hills, buildings, etc and a sub-surface detonation causes destruction of buildings, has lower radiation levels and fewer explosive and implosive effects. There are several effects from a detonation...the explosive force which drives air away at a tremendous speed, then the returning air causes and implosive effect, then the heat. A heat wave is generated that is greater than the temperature of the sun and vaporizes concrete and steel. Of course there is the sonic wave that further damages structures. These effects take place in nanoseconds...a billionth of a second, then the fun begins. Depending on the radioactive elements involved, dust clouds of plutonium, uranium, selenium, etc will move from the point of impact, caught by the heat wave and also by normal air currents. Inhaling plutonium will cause death within a day. Besides radiation sickness, long term effects from various radioactive isotopes would be absorbed into plants, eaten by grazing animals and perhaps causing bone cancer. In Chernobyl, during their meltdown, radioactive ions spread world wide and it is likely you might be breathing them now (mostly in the Northern Hemisphere). Many of the nuclear weapons have multiple-warheads that can be aimed at different targets.

Answer 9

A nuclear bomb can destroy about a whole state

Answer 10

the amount of nuclear arsenal in the world today can blow up this earth more than 20 times over. all that's alive/breathing will cease to be alive/breathing. all the atoms with heavy nuclei will start disintegrating into smaller atoms. Situation of Earth will be similar to that of Sun.

Now the question should be what needs to be done for stopping the nuclear race completely? What can be done to change the mindset of people completely? What can be done to bring about a truely unified world - free of struggle?

Answer 11

According to several of my Physics books, opinions from scientists that I know. And A few History books... A Nuclear/atomic bomb would distory an entire city, but it all depends on the strength of the bomb itself.....