Yeah it'd probably work.. conventional explosives create steam, CO2 and nitrogen, among other things depending on what type it is. A nuke has nowhere near 1 ton of TNT, yet has a yield of many thousand times that, so the result may indeed leave little "burp".
Oh- not to forget that megaton nukes are fusion devices, so they'll be giving off a good bit of helium. Although I imagine again it'll be thousands of times less than conventional explosives.
The low frequency burst you speak of would travel around the world (of course). (Is our hypothetical world covered in water?
) It's hard to say if, when the shockwave breaks the surface above the device, if it wouldn't throw much water up. Most depth charges seem to swell things a bit, and with a fraction of a gigaton....
The shockwave at any point would certainly be tall, whether or not it's travelling in deep water. Probably make a reasonable tsunami too. In fact I seem to remember something about nukes placed in the ocean threatening coastal cities. Wavelength would probably be like...miles... Certainly you'd feel it...don't know if there *is* a safe distance besides being in the middle of a continent!
Tim (just woke up so please rip this post up as you feel necessary )
Oh- not to forget that megaton nukes are fusion devices, so they'll be giving off a good bit of helium. Although I imagine again it'll be thousands of times less than conventional explosives.
The low frequency burst you speak of would travel around the world (of course). (Is our hypothetical world covered in water?
) It's hard to say if, when the shockwave breaks the surface above the device, if it wouldn't throw much water up. Most depth charges seem to swell things a bit, and with a fraction of a gigaton....The shockwave at any point would certainly be tall, whether or not it's travelling in deep water. Probably make a reasonable tsunami too. In fact I seem to remember something about nukes placed in the ocean threatening coastal cities. Wavelength would probably be like...miles... Certainly you'd feel it...don't know if there *is* a safe distance besides being in the middle of a continent!
Tim (just woke up so please rip this post up as you feel necessary
)
speaking of deadly sound waves.....
Years ago while reading through the directory files of Borelands Turbo C++ (with new multicolored menus (12 colors....)) I came across this under the "sound" heading
"True story: 7 Hz is the resonance frequency of a chickens skull cavity. This was determined empirically in Australia, where a new factory generating 7 - Hz tones was located too close to a chicken ranch: When the factory started up, all the chickens died."
Years ago while reading through the directory files of Borelands Turbo C++ (with new multicolored menus (12 colors....)) I came across this under the "sound" heading
"True story: 7 Hz is the resonance frequency of a chickens skull cavity. This was determined empirically in Australia, where a new factory generating 7 - Hz tones was located too close to a chicken ranch: When the factory started up, all the chickens died."
uvodee, perhaps your thinking of a low-yield earth penatrating nuke, which in theory, if it worked correctly, would be pretty much radiation free other then at the site of detonation would be easily contained. Neutron bombs on the other hand are still dirty, still leave radiation to a point, and can do some really nasty thing to certain steels including radiating them for a period of time(ie, radiating a tanks armor making the tank itself lethal to it's crew).
Just a few small points to add to this discussion.. =)
First off, the limit of 190dB in air is not, as I recall, the absolute limit. For one thing, a sound pressure level of 192dB is required to shatter steel, and I believe Cerwin-Vega did this at a demonstration once, by heaping a hundred or so of their largest speakers into a truck, and connecting them to a triphase outlet or somesuch. Also, you must consider that the pressure waves from the nuclear strikes in Hiroshima and Nagasaki propagated at something like 2km/sec, which far exceeds the usual ~330m/sec limit. The estimated sound pressure at ground zero was 210dB as I recall.
Second, someone wondered about the required sound pressure to kill a human.. The tympanic membrane will typically rupture between 2 and 5 psi. At 5 psi, the body will be accelerated with sufficient force to cause 50% mortality from head injuries if an obstruction is hit. I am not certain, but I seem to recall that the hollow viscera will rupture somewhere between 7 and 30 psi, which is serious, to say the least.
I'm not sure what decibel levels this translates to..
I do seem to recall that shellshock can occur at some 140dB-150dB, which happened at a particular subwoofer demonstration, where one of the participants was rushed off to a hospital. One more reason why you should not operate a sixpack of Avantgarde basshorns at maximum output, or for that matter connect them to anything with a DC offset.
First off, the limit of 190dB in air is not, as I recall, the absolute limit. For one thing, a sound pressure level of 192dB is required to shatter steel, and I believe Cerwin-Vega did this at a demonstration once, by heaping a hundred or so of their largest speakers into a truck, and connecting them to a triphase outlet or somesuch. Also, you must consider that the pressure waves from the nuclear strikes in Hiroshima and Nagasaki propagated at something like 2km/sec, which far exceeds the usual ~330m/sec limit. The estimated sound pressure at ground zero was 210dB as I recall.
Second, someone wondered about the required sound pressure to kill a human.. The tympanic membrane will typically rupture between 2 and 5 psi. At 5 psi, the body will be accelerated with sufficient force to cause 50% mortality from head injuries if an obstruction is hit. I am not certain, but I seem to recall that the hollow viscera will rupture somewhere between 7 and 30 psi, which is serious, to say the least.
I'm not sure what decibel levels this translates to..
I do seem to recall that shellshock can occur at some 140dB-150dB, which happened at a particular subwoofer demonstration, where one of the participants was rushed off to a hospital. One more reason why you should not operate a sixpack of Avantgarde basshorns at maximum output, or for that matter connect them to anything with a DC offset.
SY said:Circlotron, here in the US, the practice of dropping a stick of dynamite in the pond to catch fish is effective but frowned upon!
I thought that was exactly what they did with snake fish in the south a couple years ago.
another way is to use high voltage electric shocks.
as to sound bomb, there were talks of subsonic sound bombs: they cause some pretty serious damages to internal organs from subsonic sound waves (like 6 hz or so). not sure if there is actually a weapon out of that.
Standoff tests like that are very useful for approximating nuclear overpresure airblast effects, but the results of these conventional explosives tests are typically classified as well.moses said:http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/hew/Usa/Tests/100ton.jpg
Or you could just do that
That's 100 tons of Comp B - what they used to calibrate the test equipment.
Chris8sirhC said:
sorry that I missed the chicken story. the last time I read about a subsonic bomb was in the 1980s. as I recall, there were some human / animal trials, and the 'weapon' itself is like a huge fan.
supposedly it wasn't terribly efficient,
.Other than that, i haven't read a single thing about it so I suppose it could be a hoax of some sorts. But it does make logic sense.
roddyama said:
That is the sound of one fission farting.
Also, this subject has been covered at length at Keelynet. The chicken farm thing was due to a hydro plant (coal fired) opening at one end of a canyon-like area in France, and the chicken farm was at the other end. The loading at the farm which was up against the cliff... of course, brought the pressure levels up a bit.
The bladder of humans will malfunction in most people at about 14 hz. People will wet themselves. There are also other frquencies that pertain to the brain cavity, etc. None as fun or effective as the bladder one though...
What SPL is required at the mentioned 14Hz frequency to actually cause such a bladder malfunction, and is it temporary or permanent?
Given how 14Hz is in the region where it needs to get pretty loud in order to be audible (and then usually as pulses, or a sensation of increased 'tension' in the air- people who live near industrial plants will know what I'm talking about)... might make for some really funky practical jokes..
Given how 14Hz is in the region where it needs to get pretty loud in order to be audible (and then usually as pulses, or a sensation of increased 'tension' in the air- people who live near industrial plants will know what I'm talking about)... might make for some really funky practical jokes..
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