What would be the effects of today's most powerful nuclear weapons on the human body?

Question

Would people at or near ground zero of the explosion even know that is happening or feel anything?
Is it try that peoples shadows were burned into the ground?
Would there be anything left?
if locked in a metal tomb would there be any way to survive?

Answer 1

I saw ground Zero at Hiroshima, and yes there were some 'shadows' burned into walls. They aren't shadows. They carbon remenants of the people was blasted into the structure behind them. The blast is so hot and intense they never felt it. It was too fast for their body's to even register the pain or even the sensation. That was at ground zero. The further you get away, the more you have debris presenting a greater contributing factor to someone demise, becuase as the blast wave looses energy colliding with the structures in its path, it begins to collect that debris and they essentially become scrapnel. Eitherway, they don't feel it due to the speed of the blast wave. As for the tomb, it would depend on its location. It if is at ground level, than you will be cooked in an over. The blast wave is at the very least several thousand degrees. So if it didn't rip your metal shelter apart it will cook you live in a matter of nanoseconds.
The people at ground zero were literally atomized. And that was with a much, much weaker device than what we have today. To give you an understanding..the devices used then are needed to set off the larger ones today. They need atomic bombs as blasting caps for the nuclear bombs.

Answer 2

1. The human body would be vaporized.
2. People at or near ground zero would not feel anything.
3. That is why there were shadows burned into the ground. There would not be anything left.
4. If the metal tomb was not lead-lined, you would not survive because of gamma rays and radiation.

Answer 3

Contrary to the first answer, nuclear weapons have neither become obsolete nor phased out. Fuel-airs are theater, not strategic weapons, and their size and yield varies, as does the size and yield of nukes. Perhaps the first respondent referred instead to the arms-reduction treaties initiated by Reagan that has in fact lowered the absolute numbers of nuclear weapons. This can be misleading, however. The huge numbers constructed by the two primary adversaries were more a function of upgrading and engineering to meet opponents' developments; not because the near 90,000 once afield were necessary in toto. The use of computers, both to test readiness and to simulate development explosions, has overridden the need to conduct actual live testing (though not completely). What we are left with is an advanced arsenal that offers slightly less reliability potential yet with greatly enhanced accuracy, and thus thermal efficiency.

Answer 4

They wouldn't know what hit them within a wide, area. It would be instantaneous vaporiziation from the heat and the nuclear winds that spread out from ground zero. Nothing, not even a metal tomb would survive, it would have to be a mile underround, but you wouldn't be able to leave due to radiactivity for several years, without dying fairly quickly and painfully from radiation sickness

Answer 5

Outside, you'd be atomized so quickly there'd be no brain to perceive the destruction and no nerves to sense the burn.

Inside tour metal tomb, it would become an oven.

Answer 6

Instant disintegration. Imagine temperatures hotter than the sun hitting your body in less than a millisecond.

Answer 7

There is an excellent article with the results of simulations in Scienfic American this month check it out.

Answer 8

the effects of any detonation include

Primary shockwave
Thermal Radiation Effects
Direct Nuclear Radiation Effects
Radioactive Fallout
Electromagnetic Pulse

Blast Wave overpressure of a 100M detonation the size of Tzarrina megabomb:
30 psi: 5.64 miles
10 psi: 10.35 miles
4 psi: 18.13 miles
2 psi: 26.71 miles
0.5 psi: 68.52 miles
0.2 psi: 140.36 miles

Key to the Damage:
15 psi Complete destruction of reinforced concrete structures, such as skyscrapers, will occur within this ring. Between 7 psi and 15 psi, there will be severe to total damage to these types of structures.

5 psi Complete destruction of ordinary houses, and moderate to severe damage to reinforced concrete structures, will occur within this ring.

2 psi Severe damage to ordinary houses, and light to moderate damage to reinforced concrete structures, will occur within this ring.

1 psi Light damage to all structures, and light to moderate damage to ordinary houses, will occur within this ring.

0.25 psi Most glass surfaces, such as windows, will shatter within this ring, some with enough force to cause injury.

I didn't calc. thermal radiation effects, fallout or EMP damage, but suffice it to say, i'd predict global impact winter....the human body would be vaporised at ground zero.

Answer 9

We would be vaporized and not even know what hit us. It is unlikely that survival would be a plus since the environment would be so toxic.

Answer 10

the temperatures are so intense that we disintegrate and it burns a shadow of us into a wall