Wow. Just…Wow.
This video is impressive and just a little bit scary. It is real footage of a test-firing of an actual nuclear artillery shell we once had in our arsenal. The shell had a nominal yield of 14-kiloton punch which put it on par with the bomb we dropped on Hiroshima.
By comparison, Little Boy (the bomb we did drop on Hiroshima) was about 10 feet long, 2 1/3 feet in diameter, and weighed about 4 1/2 tons. It took us only eight years to figure out how to pack a Little Boy-sized nuclear punch into a payload only half as long and a quarter the weight.
Mætenloch has more details on the footage, along with some other little tidbits about our nuclear artillery arsenal and a great picture of man and ape coexisting peaceably.
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Category: Rampant Geekery
Note the first effect on the test objects (vehicles, a house, instruments–from :55 to 1:09); you see them darken, smolder, and the smoke blows away; that's entirely from the heat and light of the explosion. The actual blast effects don't begin until the 1:10 mark, when the shockwave hits.
I read that, because of the airburst, there were two shockwaves, each one a bit weaker than one would have been, but much more effective against vehicles and structures.
Yeeeessss……
Many's the time I've wished I had a Davy Crockett or something similar in my garage.
I once ate a double bean burrito that resulted in similar effects, although much more localized.
Great video. Stumbled and tweeted.