what energy transforms occur in a nuclear bomb?

Question

please answer in a language i might understand! ie. no posh science speak - im already confused enough with physics!

Answer 1

The first energy transformation is chemical in nature. High explosive of some type is detonated to push to pieces of either enriched uranium or plutonium together very rapidly. The high explosive is actually burned in fraction of a second, just as gasoline burns very readily in a car engine.

The next energy transformation occurs when the two pieces of fissionable material rush towards each other. The atomic particles emited by each piece cause more particles to be knocked loose from both pieces, resulting in a 'chain reaction', where so many particles are emitted that the process is self-sustaining. As the number of neutrons knocked loose increases, very high temperatures are acheived. Very quickly, all available nuetrons are seperated from the atoms of the fissionable material, resulting in a brief period of temperatures of millions of degrees Celsius. This is what is called an atom bomb, or a fission bomb, and is the kind of weapon used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War Two.

Answer 2

The energy transform that occurs in a nuclear bomb is mass to energy in Einstein's famous equation E=mc². For example, in a uranium or plutonium based nuclear bomb, chemical explosives are detonated to smash the uranium or plutonium together very quickly at very high pressures. By smashing the uranium or plutonium into itself, many of the uranium or plutonium atoms split into smaller pieces. The mass of the smaller pieces does not equal the mass of the original material. That lost mass is converted into energy by the above formula.

In a hydrogen bomb, a similar process occurs, however, isotopes of hydrogen are smashed together to form heavier elements like helium. The mass of the starting bits of hydrogen are heavier than the final element created and the difference in mass is converted to energy.

As other posters have said, many other energy transformations occur involving heat, light, sound, and kinetic energy, but the nuclear transformation had been missed.

Answer 3

Apart from the chemical explosives that trigger the thing, the short answer is: nuclear energy to heat (and then light, sound, kinetic energy in the blast etc.).
So what is nuclear energy? It's the energy released when the particles making up atomic nuclei fly apart. A simple analogy is if you have things held together by a tight elastic band, which slips off. The energy previously stored in the elastic band causes the band to fly off in some direction or other.

Answer 4

Imagine you have a spring (a spring which keeps things apart rather than pulls them together) attached to a metal table. On top of the spring, you place a very strong magnet.
In order to make the magnet stick to the table, you have to apply energy to compress the spring. Once you have put in enough energy and the magnet is close enough to the table, it will suddenly be attracted to the metal table, and will bang down, sticking firmly. This is like nuclear fusion. If you force the nuclei close enough together that the force of the spring is beaten, then the nuclei will suddenly fuse, releasing energy in the process (like the bang made when the magnet grabs the metal table…except it’s a LOT of energy).
Nuclear fission (like in bombs) is the opposite of this. You start with atoms that already have their springs squashed and the magnets are attached to the table. If you shoot things at the magnet, and hit it hard enough, it will be knocked free of the table just long enough that the energy stored in the spring will force them apart.

These two forces (strong nuclear attraction and electromagnetic repulsion) are why we can extract energy from atoms by BOTH breaking them apart AND fusing them together.

Answer 5

Mass is radiated out of the Nucleus of Uranium atoms due to the spliting of their atom's Nucleus ,during detonation of an atomic bumb. The mass radiated exits at the speed of light. The Product of the amount of the radiated Mass and the Speed of Light square is called the "Energy "radiated out the Nuclear bomb explosion.

Answer 6

Einstein said that matter (everything that exists, you, the Earth, stars, etc.... basically anything that can be measured in Kg) can be turned into energy (light is an example of pure energy. it has no mass and so cannot be measured in kg)

His equation (E=M(Csquared)) just means that the energy (E)locked up in everything is equal to its mass (M) times the speed of light squared (Csquared).

or E=M x 90000000000000000. And E is measured in joules.

That equation along with a lot of other complicated precision maths allows the release of that energy in a weapon.

All the energy comes from the matter itself. They use Uranium and Plutonium because its the easiest to make explode. But its the same with all matter.
The pencil you use contains the same energy as the equivelent mass of uranium, we just cant extract it from wood yet.

Answer 7

Chemical potential energy is transformed into kinetic energy and thermal energy in a short time.

Answer 8

the mass of the bomb is transfered into light and extreme heat