"The plutonium behind that flash [in the 1st nuclear test] is estimated at one gram – the weight of a dollar bill."https://twitter.com/AndyWeberNCB/status/641032786304991232 …
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@russianforces I posted it b/c it was so shocking, but can't testify to it. But the link you posted doesn't work for me.@wellerstein?
@StephenUCS @russianforces The "weight of a 1 dollar bill" is the amount of mass converted to energy, not the amount of actual Pu fissioned.
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@wellerstein@StephenUCS That's a good way of thinking about it. The way it was said in the article is rather misleading -
@russianforces@StephenUCS I think the last part of the paragraph in question is an editing mistake. -
@wellerstein@StephenUCS Schlosser made the same mistake in Command and Control -
@russianforces@StephenUCS My copy of Schlosser has it right — he distinguishes between what fissions and what converts into energy. -
@wellerstein Schlosser (first?) made the dollar bill comparison. Maybe technically correct, but ratherl misleading@StephenUCS -
@russianforces@wellerstein Just noted that@WilliamJBroad cites John McPhee for the gram figure https://books.google.com/books?id=qVmZWWqrO5IC&pg=PT132&dq=%22when+Fat+Man+exploded+over+Nagasaki+the+amount+of+matter+that+changed+into+energy+and+destroyed+the+city+was+one+gram%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAGoVChMI0rTa-OrYxwIVk-uACh2d3gvY#v=onepage&q=%22when%20Fat%20Man%20exploded%20over%20Nagasaki%20the%20amount%20of%20matter%20that%20changed%20into%20energy%20and%20destroyed%20the%20city%20was%20one%20gram%22&f=false … -
@StephenUCS@russianforces@WilliamJBroad Another way to think about it: fissioning atoms convert about 1/1000th of their mass into energy. -
@wellerstein Not sure it's helpful. There is no mass that is converted to energy. What's mass and energy anyway?@StephenUCS@WilliamJBroad - 1 more reply
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