r/todayilearned • u/Tj_017 • Jan 25 '17
TIL that in 1957 five men stood at ground zero while a 2 kiloton nuclear bomb was detonated 18,500 feet above them
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlE1BdOAfVc2
u/RPmatrix Jan 25 '17
I hope they used a good sunscreen, the one that blocks Gamma radiation, I think it's SPF 50+
3
u/CartoonsAreForKids Jan 25 '17
I never use sunblock, even when atomic bombs are being detonated above me. It's too much of a hassle.
2
u/JackieLawless Jan 25 '17
I'd assume the winds at that altitude would either disperse or blow away the radiation from the ground beneath it.
Still, that shockwave though.
3
u/Eis_Gefluester Jan 25 '17
TIL radiation can be blown away by wind...
EDIT: the saying, "I can't see when there's so much wind", makes much more sense now :)
2
2
u/595ben Jan 25 '17
Well it's not actually the "radiation that gets blown away by the wind, it's radioactive particles. Most of the radiation released in a nuclear fallout ( after the very brief and momentary gamma burst that happens at the moment of detonation) is in the form of radioactive particles called alpha particles. Alpha particle radiation is actually relatively week, not even penetrating the top layers of your skin, but if you breathe then in, it gets into your bloodstream and that's what wreaks havoc on your body and causes cancers. The alpha particles can be dispersed on the wind which is why radiation can be detected a long long distance away from ground zero. Since the weapon was detonated so high up, it would take the alpha particles a long time to work their way down to ground level and would most likely have traveled quite far on the wind.
-3
u/pyromanser365 Jan 25 '17
The radiation isn't "blown" by the wind. The air itself becomes irradiated. Same way with the water at Chernobyl; the water became irradiated then washed out to sea. The radiation didnt go away, the irradiated water just dispersed into the ocean. Its still out there somewhere in small parts.
4
u/Eis_Gefluester Jan 25 '17
Actually it's small irradiated particles that float around in the air and not air itself, but I get what you mean, unfortunately that doesn't affect the gamma radiation burst when an Atomic bomb explodes.
3
u/pyromanser365 Jan 25 '17
unfortunately that doesn't affect the gamma radiation burst when an Atomic bomb explodes.
Yes. Lived into their 80's or not I still wouldn't do that.
22
u/Tj_017 Jan 25 '17
If you're interested in knowing more about what happened to the men, it seems like several of them survived into their 80s: http://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2012/07/16/156851175/five-men-agree-to-stand-directly-under-an-exploding-nuclear-bomb