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wellerstein's profile
Alex Wellerstein
Alex Wellerstein
Alex Wellerstein
Verified account
@wellerstein

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Alex WellersteinVerified account

@wellerstein

Historian of science, secrecy, and nuclear weapons. Professor of STS at @FollowStevens. UC Berkeley alum with a Harvard PhD. NUKEMAP creator. Coder and web dev.

Hoboken, NJ / NYC
blog.nuclearsecrecy.com
Joined September 2011

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    1. Alex Wellerstein‏Verified account @wellerstein 26 Nov 2018
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      This is interesting and counterintuitive — because of how the energy proportions itself (e.g. visible vs. infrared), kiloton-range nuclear weapons are brighter than megaton-range weapons, apparently.pic.twitter.com/AgRnRpBY8Y

      8 replies 29 retweets 73 likes
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    2. Alex Wellerstein‏Verified account @wellerstein 26 Nov 2018
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      Or rather, "energy is proportioned," to be a bit more grammatical. (Monday mornings, am I right?) Same document says that 45% of the fireball energy in kiloton-range shot was in visible spectrum, while it is only 25% in megaton-range shots.

      3 replies 0 retweets 6 likes
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    3. Alex Wellerstein‏Verified account @wellerstein 26 Nov 2018
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      I have looked for a graph or equation that would give peak brightness as a function of yield, but not found anything obvious. Which is itself kind of interesting.

      2 replies 0 retweets 7 likes
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    4. Alex Wellerstein‏Verified account @wellerstein 26 Nov 2018
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      I did find this interesting article from Nature, 1962, on the brightness of nuclear weapons — has some nice illustrations:pic.twitter.com/3E9BlUfBzV

      2 replies 7 retweets 27 likes
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    5. Alex Wellerstein‏Verified account @wellerstein 26 Nov 2018
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      It has this graph which seems wrong to me — it assumes that the amount of visible energy is directly proportional to the yield, but that's not right. Article ends with a nice bit about whether aliens in nearby star systems could see nukes going off on Earth (probably not).pic.twitter.com/vnZUAramyr

      6 replies 1 retweet 13 likes
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    6. Alex Wellerstein‏Verified account @wellerstein 26 Nov 2018
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      Poked around a bit and found these interesting diagrams (which are related to flash blindedness) which seem to indicate that indeed, lower-yield nuclear weapons are indeed brighter than higher-yield ones. Again, kind of an interesting and unintuitive fact.pic.twitter.com/EOBQ5n8xtL

      7 replies 2 retweets 14 likes
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    7. ToughSF‏ @ToughSf 26 Nov 2018
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      Replying to @wellerstein

      Does this phenomenon exist for detonations in vacuum or very high altitudes?

      0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
      Alex Wellerstein‏Verified account @wellerstein 26 Nov 2018
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      Replying to @macodiseas @ToughSf

      The surface temperature of the fireball is essentially consistent with yield, though.

      2:28 PM - 26 Nov 2018
      • 2 Likes
      • ToughSF Jaro Macodiseas
      0 replies 0 retweets 2 likes

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