"The Effects of Nuclear Weapons"

In sci.space.policy James Nicoll wrote:
In article ,
Mike Walsh wrote:

"The Effects of Nuclear Weapons"

That is an old one right from the Government Printing Office.

Has a few rule of thumb scaling laws that you can use to
get an estimate on how much damage a particular size warhead
will cause. You have to extrapolate from Hiroshima and Nagasaki
data given in the book.

Unless you have one like mine, which comes with the Nuclear
Effects circular slide rule in the back pocket.

Which is good, as it lets you pronounce with certainty "that was
eleven megatons", when all about you are running away screaming

In article ,
Ian Stirling wrote:
In sci.space.policy James Nicoll wrote:
In article ,
Mike Walsh wrote:

"The Effects of Nuclear Weapons"

That is an old one right from the Government Printing Office.

Has a few rule of thumb scaling laws that you can use to
get an estimate on how much damage a particular size warhead
will cause. You have to extrapolate from Hiroshima and Nagasaki
data given in the book.

Unless you have one like mine, which comes with the Nuclear
Effects circular slide rule in the back pocket.

Which is good, as it lets you pronounce with certainty "that was
eleven megatons", when all about you are running away screaming

One should be able to tell quite a lot from the lag
between bursting into flames and the buildings around one
collapsing, as well as the apparent wide of the fireball vs
how fast one's eyes melted.
--
"The keywords for tonight are Caution and Flammability."
JFK, _Bubba Ho Tep_

On 31 May 2004 16:34:37 -0400, James Nicoll wrote:
One should be able to tell quite a lot from the lag
between bursting into flames and the buildings around one
collapsing, as well as the apparent wide of the fireball vs
how fast one's eyes melted.

Not to mention by measuring the time it takes the flash to reach second
brightness peak, though this would only be readily noticeable in the
megaton range...

--
The butler did it.

In article ,
Ian Stirling writes:
In sci.space.policy James Nicoll wrote:
In article ,
Mike Walsh wrote:

"The Effects of Nuclear Weapons"

That is an old one right from the Government Printing Office.

Has a few rule of thumb scaling laws that you can use to
get an estimate on how much damage a particular size warhead
will cause. You have to extrapolate from Hiroshima and Nagasaki
data given in the book.

Unless you have one like mine, which comes with the Nuclear
Effects circular slide rule in the back pocket.

Which is good, as it lets you pronounce with certainty "that was
eleven megatons", when all about you are running away screaming

Naw - if it's really good, you toss a bit of grass/paper in the air
when you see the flash, measure its displacement when the shock hits
by eye, and do it in your head. While keeping ahead of the crowd, as
in "If you see me running, try to keep up."

(Worked for Ed Teller at Alamagordo. And not only was he faster than
the Data Reduction folks with all their slide rules & Analyzers, he
was more accurate, as well.)

--
Pete Stickney
A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many
bad measures. -- Daniel Webster

Peter Stickney wrote:

(Worked for Ed Teller at Alamagordo.

No, it was Fermi.

Paul

(Peter Stickney) wrote in message

Naw - if it's really good, you toss a bit of grass/paper in the air
when you see the flash, measure its displacement when the shock hits
by eye, and do it in your head. While keeping ahead of the crowd, as
in "If you see me running, try to keep up."

(Worked for Ed Teller at Alamagordo. And not only was he faster than
the Data Reduction folks with all their slide rules & Analyzers, he
was more accurate, as well.)

As others have said...it was Fermi, and problems like this became
known as Fermip problems. See, for example
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionar...rmi%20question

-stmx3

In article ,
(stmx3) writes:
(Peter Stickney) wrote in message

Naw - if it's really good, you toss a bit of grass/paper in the air
when you see the flash, measure its displacement when the shock hits
by eye, and do it in your head. While keeping ahead of the crowd, as
in "If you see me running, try to keep up."

(Worked for Ed Teller at Alamagordo. And not only was he faster than
the Data Reduction folks with all their slide rules & Analyzers, he
was more accurate, as well.)

As others have said...it was Fermi, and problems like this became
known as Fermip problems. See, for example
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionar...rmi%20question

Quite right. My misstatement. I plead Lack of Caffeine.

--
Pete Stickney
A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many
bad measures. -- Daniel Webster

I got a blast out of my copy.