Alex WellersteinVerified account

The real unknown here is the serviceman question. I'd like to think that if you looked at detonations side by side, you can tell, even without a scale reference, that .5 kt is pretty small for a nuke.

But 5 and 50 kt are probably firmly enough in "definitely a rather large nuke" category that I don't know how easily people would distinguish intuitively under non-experimental conditions (e.g. without knowing the range first, or keeping track of the time, etc.).

My understanding is that about 70-100kt+ is when the double flash starts being visible to naked eye.

Guys. A bunch of soldiers (or any other random bunch of people), with or without traning, are going to OMG IT'S A NUKE! I'M GONNA DIE! Those differences in flash time are hard to see on film as I sit in my comfortable office.

I keep swearing to myself that I’m going to mute this thread BUT I CAN’T ESCAPE. “Men in ties arguing troops measuring the size of mushroom clouds”

Fully admit we’re deep into nuke wonk trainspotting territory here, not variables that are really going to matter.

I suggest that if your nuclear signaling idea requires you to consider whethet it’s cloudy or if the troops you’re bombing have been issued mushroom cloud protractors, it’s a bad idea