2006-11-21 04:32:14 · 7 answers · asked by svly 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
The Davy Crockett warhead( W54 ) with a weight of only 51 lb (23 kg) was the smallest and lightest nuclear weapon ever deployed by the U.S. military in 1961. This W54 has been said to be suitable as "suitcase bags"
Presently, The Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) is half the weight of the smallest bomb the Air Force uses today,500-pound Mark 82. It uses a 250 pound-class warhead that has demonstrated penetration of more than 6 feet of reinforced concrete. The weapon was flown into combat for the first time last Oct. 5, 2006 by members of the 494th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron unit deployed to the Southwest Asia area of operations. SDB is currently the smallest guided bomb in the Air Force.☺
2006-11-21 05:13:41 · answer #1 · answered by ♥ lani s 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
For their small size, the frozen deuterium pellets used in inertial confinement tests of theromonuclear fusion (10 miligram, the size of a pin head) could qualify, although they would not blow up by themselves, needing the blast of several powerful lasers.
If you mean "nuclear bomb" the Davy Crockett, with a yield about 10 tons of TNT (see link) would be about it.
If you meant bomb in the chemical explosive sense, I presume you could always take a smal bit of an explosive, and then a smaller bit still, and so on. When it stops doing anything useful or destructive, is anyone's definition, and then its stops being a bomb.
2006-11-21 04:47:39 · answer #2 · answered by Vincent G 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Those little Chinese firecrackers we used to be able to buy are about as small as I have ever seen. Are they bombs...well they are if one goes off in your hand and you lose a finger or two.
If you are talking about a weapon used by a military group, then the practice depth charge (PDC) that used 2 pounds equivalent TNT explosive is the smallest I've encountered. PDC's were used to create underwater sound that was used to find and pin point submarines. PDC's were dropped from anti submarine warfare aircraft like the S-2, P-2, and P-3.
About the same size, but containing much more explosive power, were the anti personnel cluster bombs dropped in Vietnam. These were, for all intents and purposes, simply hand grenades reshaped to act like bombs when they were dropped from aircraft.
2006-11-21 04:43:38 · answer #3 · answered by oldprof 7 · 1⤊ 2⤋
The smallest bomb developed so far would be a match.
2006-11-21 04:37:42 · answer #4 · answered by Extoss 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Probably those tiny poppers you throw on the ground. Or if you want to get as small as you can, you could say when a photon slams into an electron.
2006-11-21 05:00:12 · answer #5 · answered by Roman Soldier 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Uh, the tiny firecrackers that sound like a machine gun when you light a string of them. I don't know of any nanobombs out there.
2006-11-21 04:36:01 · answer #6 · answered by wayfaroutthere 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
the firecracker
2006-11-21 04:41:40 · answer #7 · answered by hiyalldr92 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋