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Operation Plumbbob, troops in front of an exploding nuclear bomb (@2:50): http://youtu.be/7mV0Lt2PUjI?t=2m50s http://youtu.be/7mV0Lt2PUjI?t=2m50s Tactical nucl

Operation Plumbbob, troops in front of an exploding nuclear bomb (@2:50): http://youtu.be/7mV0Lt2PUjI?t=2m50s http://youtu.be/7mV0Lt2PUjI?t=2m50s Tactical nuclear artillery being fired (@0:50): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46GBjlUOROY&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46GBjlUOROY&feature=relat...

delinka 14y ago
Holy Hell. That second video really drives home the devastation caused in the blast wave. Paint on vehicles turned instantly to ash and blew away. Wooden structures instantly caught fire. What was unexpected to me (I saw this in the first video which made me aware of it) was the 'backwash' after the initial shock wave. Terrifying.
- cubicle 14y ago
  The prompt X-rays from the physics package heat up a lot of air very quickly. This expands, producing the supersonic shockwave front. Then the fireball, being very hot and much less dense than the air around it, rises. Air is sucked towards ground zero, producing the backwash, and the characteristic mushroom cloud of any very large explosion.
  - klodolph 14y ago
    And the fireball created by the X-rays is, for a moment, hidden behind the shock wave. This makes a "double flash" which can be detected from orbit without even the need for a camera, just point a photodetector at the Earth's surface.
    - arethuza 14y ago
      Bhangmeters are one kind of specialised photo detector used to detect nuclear explosions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhangmeter http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhangmeter I'm pretty sure these were used in bunkers (at least in the UK) as well as satellites.
- mynameishere 14y ago
  Actually that second video looked mostly fake. Some of the footage was in "The Day After".
  - CapitalistCartr 14y ago
    Its real. Many movies have reused stock nuclear footage. I recognize that video. Also, the effects in it are typical of nuclear blasts.
    - mynameishere 14y ago
      Sorry if I wasn't clear. The video was a clear hack job, interspersing many different pieces of footage from different tests. It was designed to fool a 1950s crowd. Let's be better than that.
- commieneko 14y ago
  I grew up in the 1960s and we lived within about 30 miles of 10 Titan II silos. They showed us these films constantly in school. With commentary. I can remember taking a map and using a compass to draw out the overlapping blast circles for a class project.
- Dove 14y ago
  If you haven't seen a lot of atomic blasts, look up Trinity and Beyond. It's a documentary about nuclear warhead development and testing, with a lot of historical footage of the blasts themselves. In fact, I think the clip you reacted to is from that documentary. Anyway, the damage you're seeing isn't actually typical for a nuclear blast. It's an effect called the precursor wind, and is in fact one of the distinctive things tested by shot Grable. A precursor is a very strong dynamic wind caused by the shell’s oblique angle of approach, and its high horizontal speed. The nuclear explosion essentially inherits the shell’s forward momentum, which sweeps across the landscape causing extensive drag damage in addition to the typical destruction. For instance, a jeep which had been left virtually untouched by the much more powerful Encore device was completely torn apart by the artillery blast, and thrown a distance of about 500 feet. http://www.damninteresting.com/atomic-annie-and-her-nuclear-projectile/ http://www.damninteresting.com/atomic-annie-and-her-nuclear-...
- goostavos 14y ago
  I highly recommend The Making of the Atomic Bomb. It goes into incredible detail about the blasts. One of the later chapters, using the example of hiroshima, discusses the effect of the blasts on the human body -- often to excruciating detail. Your comment about the paint instantly turning to ash and blowing away made me think of the book. At a certain distance from the bomb, the wave isn't strong enough to instantly kill you, but much like paint on a car, you're skin will instantly blister from the heat, and then be blown off by the shock wave. Horrifying stuff, but a really, really interesting read.
andyjsong 14y ago
In the 2nd vid, there are vertical smoke lines next to the mushroom cloud, are those from the bomb itself or something else?
- mrphoebs 14y ago
  those are rockets launched to create smoke trails. The smoke trails were used to study the velocity of the shock-wave emanating from the explosion. A comprehensive explanation can be found here. http://www.atomcentral.com/atomic-smoke-trails.aspx http://www.atomcentral.com/atomic-smoke-trails.aspx

delinka 14y ago

Holy Hell. That second video really drives home the devastation caused in the blast wave. Paint on vehicles turned instantly to ash and blew away. Wooden structures instantly caught fire. What was unexpected to me (I saw this in the first video which made me aware of it) was the 'backwash' after the initial shock wave. Terrifying.

cubicle 14y ago
The prompt X-rays from the physics package heat up a lot of air very quickly. This expands, producing the supersonic shockwave front. Then the fireball, being very hot and much less dense than the air around it, rises. Air is sucked towards ground zero, producing the backwash, and the characteristic mushroom cloud of any very large explosion.
- klodolph 14y ago
  And the fireball created by the X-rays is, for a moment, hidden behind the shock wave. This makes a "double flash" which can be detected from orbit without even the need for a camera, just point a photodetector at the Earth's surface.
  - arethuza 14y ago
    Bhangmeters are one kind of specialised photo detector used to detect nuclear explosions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhangmeter http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhangmeter I'm pretty sure these were used in bunkers (at least in the UK) as well as satellites.
mynameishere 14y ago
Actually that second video looked mostly fake. Some of the footage was in "The Day After".
- CapitalistCartr 14y ago
  Its real. Many movies have reused stock nuclear footage. I recognize that video. Also, the effects in it are typical of nuclear blasts.
  - mynameishere 14y ago
    Sorry if I wasn't clear. The video was a clear hack job, interspersing many different pieces of footage from different tests. It was designed to fool a 1950s crowd. Let's be better than that.
commieneko 14y ago
I grew up in the 1960s and we lived within about 30 miles of 10 Titan II silos. They showed us these films constantly in school. With commentary. I can remember taking a map and using a compass to draw out the overlapping blast circles for a class project.
Dove 14y ago
If you haven't seen a lot of atomic blasts, look up Trinity and Beyond. It's a documentary about nuclear warhead development and testing, with a lot of historical footage of the blasts themselves. In fact, I think the clip you reacted to is from that documentary. Anyway, the damage you're seeing isn't actually typical for a nuclear blast. It's an effect called the precursor wind, and is in fact one of the distinctive things tested by shot Grable. A precursor is a very strong dynamic wind caused by the shell’s oblique angle of approach, and its high horizontal speed. The nuclear explosion essentially inherits the shell’s forward momentum, which sweeps across the landscape causing extensive drag damage in addition to the typical destruction. For instance, a jeep which had been left virtually untouched by the much more powerful Encore device was completely torn apart by the artillery blast, and thrown a distance of about 500 feet. http://www.damninteresting.com/atomic-annie-and-her-nuclear-projectile/ http://www.damninteresting.com/atomic-annie-and-her-nuclear-...
goostavos 14y ago
I highly recommend The Making of the Atomic Bomb. It goes into incredible detail about the blasts. One of the later chapters, using the example of hiroshima, discusses the effect of the blasts on the human body -- often to excruciating detail. Your comment about the paint instantly turning to ash and blowing away made me think of the book. At a certain distance from the bomb, the wave isn't strong enough to instantly kill you, but much like paint on a car, you're skin will instantly blister from the heat, and then be blown off by the shock wave. Horrifying stuff, but a really, really interesting read.

andyjsong 14y ago

In the 2nd vid, there are vertical smoke lines next to the mushroom cloud, are those from the bomb itself or something else?

mrphoebs 14y ago
those are rockets launched to create smoke trails. The smoke trails were used to study the velocity of the shock-wave emanating from the explosion. A comprehensive explanation can be found here. http://www.atomcentral.com/atomic-smoke-trails.aspx http://www.atomcentral.com/atomic-smoke-trails.aspx