WEBVTT - How Does a Nuclear Bomb Work? 0:00:05.240 --> 0:00:08.160 Hey, Daniel, do you ever wish you had a superpower 0:00:08.480 --> 0:00:10.640 all the time? I wish I had lots of superpowers. 0:00:11.039 --> 0:00:14.760 But you know, science has actually provided us with some real, 0:00:14.880 --> 0:00:17.560 honest to God powers that our ancestors might have thought 0:00:17.560 --> 0:00:21.440 were superpowers. Not quite yet, but you know, we can 0:00:21.440 --> 0:00:24.520 do some pretty amazing stuff. We'll listen to the podcast 0:00:24.560 --> 0:00:27.080 episode about teleportation before you decide, but we can do 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:29.760 some pretty amazing stuff, stuff that would have limited to 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:32.960 deities a thousand years ago. You know, things like harnessing 0:00:33.040 --> 0:00:35.599 the power of the sun. What do you mean, like 0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:38.560 we can create the sun here on Earth. Yeah, absolutely, 0:00:38.600 --> 0:00:41.640 we can create miniute your son's here on Earth. Not 0:00:41.760 --> 0:00:44.400 recommended to do in your at home kitchen, but it's 0:00:44.440 --> 0:01:02.120 something science is capable of. Hi. I'm Jorge and I'm Daniel. 0:01:02.360 --> 0:01:05.640 Welcome to Daniel and Jorge explained the Universe our podcast 0:01:05.680 --> 0:01:09.160 about the universe and everything in it and everyone in it, 0:01:09.440 --> 0:01:12.399 and even about aliens if they are in it. Yea, 0:01:12.680 --> 0:01:15.959 even about sons sons s U N and sons s 0:01:16.000 --> 0:01:20.240 O N, And we explain it all today on the program. 0:01:20.240 --> 0:01:22.960 We are actually talking about harnessing the power of the sun. 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:26.240 Science has distilled the thing that happens inside the sun, 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:29.120 the energy release, and made it available for us here 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:32.479 on Earth with explosive results. That's right. So, if you 0:01:32.560 --> 0:01:35.600 are a dictator of your own little country looking to 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:39.000 become a nuclear superpower, this is the podcast for you. 0:01:39.000 --> 0:01:43.959 Do they ever going to talk about nuclear weapons and 0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:47.039 specifically the nuclear bomb? How does it work? How do 0:01:47.080 --> 0:01:49.080 you build one in your garage? Should you build one 0:01:49.080 --> 0:01:53.520 in your garage? The answer is no, The answer is 0:01:53.560 --> 0:01:57.320 definitely no, one should you? But could you? Maybe? Maybe 0:01:58.400 --> 0:02:01.680 this podcast is about the science, not the ethics. I 0:02:01.680 --> 0:02:04.120 think we'll touch on both actually, because science is never 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:07.120 free of ethics. It's it's always a complex mixture. So 0:02:07.200 --> 0:02:11.119 nuclear bombs is something that people, obviously we're very surprised 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:13.799 to learn about in the mid forties, uh, and then 0:02:13.960 --> 0:02:16.720 there was a huge concern with the Cold War up 0:02:16.760 --> 0:02:18.840 until the eighties and nineties, but then it sort of 0:02:18.919 --> 0:02:21.640 quieted down until a little bit recently. Right, there's been 0:02:21.680 --> 0:02:25.120 a lot of talk about rogue nations and the threat 0:02:25.160 --> 0:02:28.600 of nuclear bombs and nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. Well, 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:31.720 if you ask the Union of Concerned Scientists, I don't 0:02:31.720 --> 0:02:34.040 think they've quieted down at all. There's been a pretty 0:02:34.080 --> 0:02:37.440 consistent fear that we would destroy ourselves and kill everybody 0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:40.560 on basically since we've got the power to do so. Yeah, 0:02:40.639 --> 0:02:43.920 I mean we had in the eighties, the USSR in 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:48.000 the USA had enormous nuclear stockpiles, tens of thousands of 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:51.720 nuclear weapons pointed at each other with hair triggers. And 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:54.120 these days we have fewer, you know, if in the 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:56.720 number of thousands instead of tens of thousands, But still 0:02:57.160 --> 0:03:00.000 there's plenty of power there to destroy each other very easy. 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:02.960 Only are you saying scientists have a hard time relaxing 0:03:03.000 --> 0:03:05.720 in general, if you know, the more you know about 0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:08.120 the state of nuclear weapons, the harder it is to 0:03:08.240 --> 0:03:11.320 really relax. Yes, but you know your your point is taken. 0:03:11.680 --> 0:03:14.400 The big powers have not yet blown each other up, 0:03:14.720 --> 0:03:16.679 and we are worth these days about smaller powers and 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:19.680 nuclear powers and terrorists in North Korea and all these 0:03:19.720 --> 0:03:22.760 folks who were developing these capabilities. So it kind of 0:03:22.760 --> 0:03:25.160 made us wonder, like, how many people out there actually 0:03:25.200 --> 0:03:29.560 know how a nuclear bomb works? And how do you 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:32.120 make one? And would it be a bad idea to 0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:35.480 explain to everybody exactly how to build a nuclear bomb? Yeah? 0:03:35.520 --> 0:03:37.600 Are we going to get arrested for this podcast or 0:03:37.640 --> 0:03:42.720 put on some kind of watch list surveillance. That's right. 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:45.480 And to say we are not telling you everybody anything 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:49.720 that wouldn't know in a physics class anyway. Yes, if 0:03:49.800 --> 0:03:51.520 we are going to get arrested for treason, you gotta 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:54.440 lock up every professor out there, Yes, which I bet 0:03:54.480 --> 0:03:56.360 some people would like to do. That's right. That was 0:03:56.400 --> 0:04:02.720 not a policy suggestion. H m hmmm. So we went 0:04:02.760 --> 0:04:04.600 out there and ask people, do you know how a 0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:07.200 nuclear bomb works? Yeah? So I think for a moment, 0:04:07.320 --> 0:04:09.640 how much do you know about a nuclear weapon? How 0:04:09.680 --> 0:04:11.960 does it actually work? If you had to? Could you 0:04:11.960 --> 0:04:14.400 build one in your garage? Here's what people had to say. 0:04:14.760 --> 0:04:18.080 I'm not sure. Honestly, I do not have no idea 0:04:18.080 --> 0:04:25.479 at all. Um, by smashing together particles cool? I'd only 0:04:25.480 --> 0:04:27.680 say yes, but I don't know how to say it 0:04:27.760 --> 0:04:33.720 in the English Chinese? Uh honevia. So there's a two 0:04:33.800 --> 0:04:36.920 kinds of nuclear bomb, right? Yeah? I combon and what 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:42.760 was that called hydridable? Yeah? So it's why is vision? Yeah? 0:04:43.000 --> 0:04:47.560 Wha yeah? Yeah? Yeah? Yeah So that's interesting. I feel 0:04:47.560 --> 0:04:50.680 like not a lot of people know how nuclear bomb works. Yeah. 0:04:50.760 --> 0:04:53.880 Half the people had no idea um, and the other 0:04:53.880 --> 0:04:55.680 half had some idea that it was something about the 0:04:55.680 --> 0:04:57.560 power of the atom. I like, the guy who only 0:04:57.600 --> 0:05:00.919 knew the words in Chinese, keep is so excited to 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:03.000 tell me what he knew. I was like, yeah, tell 0:05:03.040 --> 0:05:06.040 me Chinese, that's fine. He definitely knew something about the topic. 0:05:06.640 --> 0:05:09.280 But yeah, people generally either didn't know anything or they 0:05:09.320 --> 0:05:11.039 knew that it's something to do with the adamant and 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:14.560 they're right. Essentially, the way nuclear bomb works is that 0:05:14.600 --> 0:05:18.240 it releases energy stored inside the atom or lots of atoms, 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:22.839 really really rapidly. M m. That's what's called the atomic bomb. Yeah. 0:05:22.880 --> 0:05:25.600 The early versions are called atomic bombs. So there's sort 0:05:25.600 --> 0:05:28.720 of two categories of nuclear weapons. There's the early ones 0:05:28.760 --> 0:05:31.800 that use fission where you split an atom apart. Those 0:05:31.839 --> 0:05:34.480 are called atomic bombs, and the later ones that are 0:05:34.480 --> 0:05:38.240 called hydrogen bombs or h bombs. Those use fusion where 0:05:38.279 --> 0:05:41.040 you squeeze nucleon together. And we'll get into the nitty 0:05:41.080 --> 0:05:43.800 gritty of exactly all how that works and why it's interesting. 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:46.760 So there are atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs. They're both 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:49.960 nuclear weapons. Oh, I see, and they weren't using different 0:05:50.400 --> 0:05:53.840 methods one of them is fizzy, the other one is fuzzy. 0:05:54.200 --> 0:05:57.080 That's exactly right, that's exactly right. One of them split 0:05:57.160 --> 0:06:00.440 the atom opened, and the other one squeezes atom together. 0:06:00.880 --> 0:06:03.280 And it's sort of surprising. You might be thinking. Hold on, 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:07.040 if splitting atoms open releases energy, how come the opposite 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:10.479 thing of fusing them together also releases energy. Yeah. Well, 0:06:10.480 --> 0:06:12.919 before we get into the technical details, you mentioned you 0:06:12.960 --> 0:06:18.600 had some personal connection to the Manhattan Project and the 0:06:18.680 --> 0:06:20.920 nuclear industry here in the United States. Can you tell 0:06:21.000 --> 0:06:22.960 us about that. Yeah, it's not that I've ever built 0:06:22.960 --> 0:06:26.679 a nuclear bomb myself. No, certainly not about doctor Manhattan. 0:06:27.640 --> 0:06:30.039 I'm not Doctor Manhattan. But I did grow up in 0:06:30.160 --> 0:06:32.640 Los Angles, New Mexico, the home of the Manhattan Project, 0:06:33.080 --> 0:06:36.360 where in the forties all these scientists got together to 0:06:36.600 --> 0:06:39.720 crack this mystery. And you know, the history of this 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:42.320 is fascinating. It was in the late thirties that people 0:06:42.360 --> 0:06:44.760 figured out, oh, you can split the atom and release 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:47.479 some huge amounts of energy. I mean, much more energy 0:06:47.520 --> 0:06:50.279 than is released when you blow up dynamite or burnt 0:06:50.279 --> 0:06:53.919 coal or anything like that. And so immediately, even before 0:06:53.960 --> 0:06:56.680 the world was at war, people realized this is the 0:06:56.720 --> 0:06:59.400 technology for a new weapon. This could be a devastating 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:02.120 new super happened, and so of course most people know 0:07:02.160 --> 0:07:05.760 the story. The US government gathered people together in the 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:08.520 middle of nowhere in New Mexico. They chose Los Almos 0:07:08.520 --> 0:07:10.960 because it's a place basically no one would go on purpose, 0:07:11.360 --> 0:07:13.560 and so no one would run into it. It wasn't 0:07:13.600 --> 0:07:15.840 because if they made a mistake, not that many people 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:20.480 would would die in an active uh you know what. 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:23.160 That's probably an aspect of it also being remote out 0:07:23.200 --> 0:07:25.520 in the middle of the desert um. But as a 0:07:25.600 --> 0:07:27.840 high schooler, you know, it wasn't much consolation to know 0:07:27.920 --> 0:07:30.080 that you were living in a place that that the 0:07:30.160 --> 0:07:32.000 government thought was going to be super boring and no 0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:33.679 one would want to go to. And they were pretty 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:35.120 much right. There's not a whole lot to do in 0:07:35.160 --> 0:07:38.240 Los Almos. And in fact, your parents worked for the 0:07:38.280 --> 0:07:41.880 Los Almos National Laboratory, right They worked on nuclear engineering 0:07:41.880 --> 0:07:44.440 and physics. That's right. Both of my parents worked for 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:47.360 Los Almos labs where the bombs were developed. What they 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:50.400 work on, I can't tell you, not because I'm being 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:52.800 secretive about it, but because I don't know. Both of 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:55.680 them had Q clearances, they never told you. No, I 0:07:55.760 --> 0:07:58.480 never visited their offices. I never talked to them in 0:07:58.520 --> 0:08:01.320 any detail about their work. I never heard about it 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:04.560 because it was all behind the clearance fence, the security fence. 0:08:04.600 --> 0:08:06.800 It was all top secret. Wow, they saw you as 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:10.440 a threat even then, that's right. They have to go 0:08:10.440 --> 0:08:12.960 through a laborate procedures to make sure they were trustworthy. 0:08:13.000 --> 0:08:15.400 We're not going to be spies for some enemy nation 0:08:15.520 --> 0:08:18.160 or something like that, or blackmail bull So like at 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:20.160 the dinner table, what would you guys talk about, Like 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:23.560 how is work? I can't tell you, don't ask me. 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:26.280 We learned pretty quickly not to ask those questions exactly. 0:08:26.720 --> 0:08:28.160 And there was no you know, take your son to 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:32.200 work day or this kind of stuff. And you know, 0:08:32.280 --> 0:08:35.720 it's interesting because when I was a kid, I learned 0:08:35.720 --> 0:08:38.040 about the history of Los Alamos. And in Los Almos, 0:08:38.080 --> 0:08:41.320 they teach you pride. They teach you this is the 0:08:41.360 --> 0:08:43.640 place the bomb was developed. This is the location of 0:08:43.679 --> 0:08:46.640 a great scientific discovery, and not just that, but that 0:08:46.760 --> 0:08:49.720 we should feel pride, national pride, and having developed something 0:08:49.760 --> 0:08:53.400 which won the war. Right, people in this town, scientists 0:08:53.440 --> 0:08:56.280 and where your parents work, they won the war with 0:08:56.320 --> 0:08:59.520 their brains and so this sort of like pride was 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:03.600 really deeply um not moving into the curriculum in life 0:09:03.640 --> 0:09:07.160 in Los Almos. It's almost like propaganda. Definitely, it's exactly 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:09.760 like propaganda, because it is propaganda. And it was only 0:09:09.840 --> 0:09:12.440 later that I heard about the controversy, like should we 0:09:12.480 --> 0:09:17.120 have dropped those bombs and killed hundreds of thousands of civilians? 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:19.640 You know, that turns out to be quite a complex 0:09:19.720 --> 0:09:23.000 moral question, you know. And if you're a scientist working 0:09:23.000 --> 0:09:25.720 on these weapons, should you be should you be developing 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:27.240 these weapons and then putting them in the hands of 0:09:27.240 --> 0:09:30.040 politicians who could use them to kill women and children? 0:09:30.360 --> 0:09:32.040 Did you ever talk to your that about that, like 0:09:32.280 --> 0:09:36.320 if he ever felt any feelings like that or how 0:09:36.360 --> 0:09:38.240 an your thoughts about that? You know. It's interesting is 0:09:38.280 --> 0:09:40.360 I didn't ask him about it until I was in 0:09:40.400 --> 0:09:43.520 my twenties, you know, like a decade after we lived 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:45.440 in Los Alamos, and I asked him about and he said, 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:48.880 you're the first person to ask me that question, and 0:09:49.200 --> 0:09:51.280 that was sort of shocking. Also, like people most almost 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:54.080 don't discuss it very much. His friends didn't ask him, 0:09:54.080 --> 0:09:55.880 his family is what the family didn't ask him. I 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:57.679 was a physics student. I knew all about this and 0:09:57.760 --> 0:10:00.000 and never asked him until it's finally occurred to me. 0:10:00.679 --> 0:10:02.800 And yeah, so I asked him, and he, um, you know, 0:10:02.960 --> 0:10:06.560 he's thought about it, he's balanced these things, and he thought, um, 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:09.120 that the nation needed defending, and there are other people 0:10:09.160 --> 0:10:12.280 out there developing nuclear weapons, and that we needed to 0:10:12.320 --> 0:10:16.240 have our arsenal ready and needed to be a tip 0:10:16.240 --> 0:10:18.800 top shape, and we needed to have the same guns 0:10:18.840 --> 0:10:20.800 as the enemy had. And you know, this was in 0:10:20.880 --> 0:10:23.000 the eighties and nineties, and so the Cold War was 0:10:23.040 --> 0:10:25.920 a very recent memory, and it was not ridiculous to 0:10:25.960 --> 0:10:29.040 think that the Russia could launch nuclear weapons against us. 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:31.080 So I think he felt some sort of pride that 0:10:31.080 --> 0:10:34.520 he was helping the national cause. So like, what was 0:10:34.559 --> 0:10:41.720 your high school mascot in your school radiation? That the fallout? Right, 0:10:41.880 --> 0:10:45.439 probably the radioactive isotope. No, No, it was nothing so exciting. 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:46.959 We lived in the top of a hill. It was 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:49.720 almost the top of mountains. So are high school mascot 0:10:49.720 --> 0:10:54.200 is the hilltoppers? Yeah, not not terribly exciting. Um, But 0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:57.640 my reaction to this, this moral quandity, was totally different. 0:10:57.720 --> 0:10:59.200 I didn't want to have anything to do with it, 0:10:59.520 --> 0:11:01.079 and so want. I had to choose a field of 0:11:01.080 --> 0:11:04.160 physics to study, I chose something very far away from 0:11:04.200 --> 0:11:07.199 any practical applications, which is, you know, Higgs boson and 0:11:07.320 --> 0:11:11.200 dark matter and particle physics. And so it's a selling 0:11:11.240 --> 0:11:13.640 point to me that none of my research could ever 0:11:13.679 --> 0:11:17.800 have any practical, immediate practical application and therefore probably not 0:11:17.840 --> 0:11:19.880 be used to kill any babies. And you know that 0:11:19.920 --> 0:11:22.400 helps me sleep at night, not killing babies for my work, 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:27.120 just avoid all responsibility. Yeah, you almost could say I'm 0:11:27.160 --> 0:11:31.560 a cartoonist, right have have any of your cartoons ever 0:11:31.640 --> 0:11:35.880 killed any babies? Not that I know of. Maybe you 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:37.760 should look into that, wholegs and you should have a 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:40.719 more definitive answer to that question. I feel like this 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:43.840 is a great recruiting of audio for physicists, you know, 0:11:44.320 --> 0:11:46.839 looking to avoid responsibility, don't want anything to do with 0:11:46.880 --> 0:11:51.440 the real world, like the particles, don't like killing babies. 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:55.200 Go into particle physics. We have killed zero babies to date. 0:11:58.360 --> 0:12:00.160 So you're you're tied to sort of the history of 0:12:00.240 --> 0:12:03.520 nuclear energy in this country. Yeah, absolutely, And you know, 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:06.280 my parents were supported by the Department of Energy, and 0:12:06.440 --> 0:12:09.439 now actually the Department Energy supports my research. So I've 0:12:09.440 --> 0:12:11.760 basically been supported by the Department of Energy directly or 0:12:11.800 --> 0:12:15.240 indirectly since I was ten um, so I'm pretty totally 0:12:15.280 --> 0:12:17.680 closely tied into what I can say. I'm completely morally 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:20.280 insulated from it. I mean, I ate food which was 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:24.840 paid for by the programs which funded nuclear weapons development, etcetera, etcetera. 0:12:24.920 --> 0:12:27.480 So my hands are not clean. Yeah, so I feel 0:12:27.480 --> 0:12:29.520 this personal connection, and I used to feel this pride, 0:12:29.520 --> 0:12:31.680 and now I feel, you know, a lot shame. But 0:12:31.760 --> 0:12:35.080 it's definitely more complicated, definitely not happy. When I imagine 0:12:35.160 --> 0:12:38.400 all those people in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, I'm going about their 0:12:38.440 --> 0:12:43.120 day and then being suddenly destroyed by nuclear bombs. It's 0:12:43.160 --> 0:12:46.480 definitely complicated how these bombs work. But before we get 0:12:46.480 --> 0:13:00.640 into it, let's take a quick break. All right, let's 0:13:00.679 --> 0:13:03.839 talk about how exactly a nuclear bomb works. So how 0:13:04.000 --> 0:13:07.240 you said there's two kinds. Actually there is fusion and 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:09.520 there is fission bombs, So that's two different kinds of 0:13:09.600 --> 0:13:12.040 nuclear bombs. How do they work? That's right? And so 0:13:12.120 --> 0:13:14.640 if you are the director of a rogue nation's nuclear 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:16.440 weapons program, this is where you're gonna want to start 0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:18.760 taking notes. Okay, So I like how do you choose 0:13:18.840 --> 0:13:22.280 which one. It's fascinating because a fusion bomb actually requires 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:25.320 a fission bomb to ignite it. Yeah, but we'll talk 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:27.000 about that in a minute. So you should start with 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:29.440 if you're developing a new technology, you start with fission 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:32.240 because it's easier. All the fusion is much more powerful. 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:35.280 So fission is breaking the nucleus of an atom, and 0:13:35.360 --> 0:13:38.559 fusion is putting together the nucleus of an atom. That's 0:13:38.559 --> 0:13:41.480 the difference, right, That's right. Fusion is fusing together and 0:13:41.720 --> 0:13:45.320 a nucleus, and fission is breaking it apart, exactly, fizzing 0:13:45.440 --> 0:13:48.439 it or phisiling it or physicisting it or whatever the 0:13:48.559 --> 0:13:53.480 verb is fizzing. Okay, thank you, and um so. But 0:13:53.559 --> 0:13:55.839 a nuclear bomb works essentially the same way as another bomb, 0:13:55.840 --> 0:13:58.400 and that its goal is released a lot of energy. Right, 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:00.360 So you have to find some stored and ergen and 0:14:00.400 --> 0:14:02.400 release it. And you can do that in dynamite with 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:05.760 this stored chemical energy, or something in oil with this 0:14:06.040 --> 0:14:09.840 stored stored energy in the gasoline or whatever. But nuclear 0:14:09.920 --> 0:14:12.600 energy is much more powerful because it has a lot 0:14:12.720 --> 0:14:15.240 more energy stored in it. Because that's all a bomb is, 0:14:15.280 --> 0:14:18.120 It's just the release of a lot of energy at 0:14:18.120 --> 0:14:21.600 the same time in a small space, right, Exactly, anything 0:14:21.680 --> 0:14:24.120 you use for power you can also turn into a bomb. 0:14:24.200 --> 0:14:27.160 Just release that energy really really quickly. Right. You can 0:14:27.200 --> 0:14:29.960 slowly burn the gasoline in your car, or you can 0:14:29.960 --> 0:14:31.560 put it in a vocal bottle and set it on 0:14:31.560 --> 0:14:34.480 fire like a Molotov cocktail. It's the same process. It 0:14:34.560 --> 0:14:36.400 just happens more rapidly. And if you release all that 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:39.800 energy really quickly, then it creates a shock wave, right, 0:14:39.840 --> 0:14:42.960 And that's what's destructive, is creating all this energy release 0:14:42.960 --> 0:14:45.640 at once creates this shock wave of heat and air, 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:48.040 and that's what blasts things apart. I see. So, like 0:14:48.160 --> 0:14:50.640 the batteries in my phone have a lot of energy 0:14:50.680 --> 0:14:53.080 stored in it into it, but there's no reaction that 0:14:53.080 --> 0:14:56.360 will cause it to like be released all quickly at 0:14:56.400 --> 0:14:59.000 the same time, exactly unless you have the Galaxy notes 0:14:59.000 --> 0:15:02.080 seven with Jack. If you have it, please at least 0:15:02.080 --> 0:15:04.720 take it back in right. But as far as I'm aware, 0:15:04.720 --> 0:15:06.800 there's no nuclear bomb app that which will set your 0:15:06.800 --> 0:15:09.440 phone on fire or anything. So where does that energy 0:15:09.480 --> 0:15:12.280 come from? And so our interviewees were correct, and that 0:15:12.400 --> 0:15:15.080 energy comes from the atom itself. That is, if you 0:15:15.160 --> 0:15:17.840 take uranium, for example, and you split it in half, 0:15:18.280 --> 0:15:22.560 energy is released. And so that that's the basic idea. 0:15:22.720 --> 0:15:25.800 You might wonder all wise, energy released, right, Well, so 0:15:25.960 --> 0:15:30.360 uranium breaks into two other things, krypton and barium, and 0:15:30.440 --> 0:15:34.680 so those two things are released. And the reason energy 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:38.200 is released is because there's more energy stored in uranium 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:40.720 than in the sum of krypton and barium, and so 0:15:40.760 --> 0:15:43.440 when you break it into crypton embarium, there's extra energy 0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:45.800 left over. But it's it's kind of weird to grasp 0:15:45.800 --> 0:15:48.040 because if I take a stick of wood and I 0:15:48.080 --> 0:15:51.920 split it in half, I don't get energy released, that's right. 0:15:52.160 --> 0:15:54.440 But imagine you had a stick of wood that was 0:15:54.880 --> 0:15:58.280 in two pieces and it was held together by a spring, right, 0:15:58.800 --> 0:16:01.760 Then there's stored energy g in that configuration, and when 0:16:01.760 --> 0:16:04.760 you break it, that's released. The sprain will sprung out. Yeah, 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:06.480 it'll spring out and will push the two things apart. 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:09.640 For example. So if there's stored energy in the configuration 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:12.320 and you break it, then that energy is released. And 0:16:12.360 --> 0:16:14.880 so that's what happens when you break uranium atom. There's 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:18.480 energy stored in the arrangement, right, and then energy is released, 0:16:18.800 --> 0:16:21.720 meaning and it that's what it does it that energy 0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:25.800 that's stored then pushes the two pieces apart really fast. Yeah, 0:16:25.920 --> 0:16:29.120 and it actually sends out neutrons. You get you get 0:16:29.120 --> 0:16:31.440 two other smaller atoms and a bunch of neutrons which 0:16:31.480 --> 0:16:33.920 fly out. Okay, and the neutrons were actually part of 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:38.000 the original nucleus. Yeah, exactly, part of the uranium nucleus. 0:16:38.520 --> 0:16:41.160 You got to start with something which can break into 0:16:41.240 --> 0:16:44.960 two smaller pieces and release energy. That's the goal if 0:16:44.960 --> 0:16:48.080 you want to do fission, and uranium is great for that. 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:51.960 There are other things that can do it also, plutonium, amersium, 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:55.200 other ones, but uranium is the one which works best. Okay, 0:16:55.280 --> 0:16:57.880 why why is it good for? Why is uranium good? 0:16:57.880 --> 0:16:59.880 What's special about uranium? Well, it just so happens that 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:02.920 is an isotope of uranium, uranium two thirty five, which 0:17:03.000 --> 0:17:06.240 is really unstable, and so it's easier to get it too. 0:17:06.560 --> 0:17:09.639 I'm looking for that verb again. Fizz fizz ile vision 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:13.760 eight split, vision eight split. Thank you. It's easier to 0:17:13.760 --> 0:17:16.159 get uranium two thirty five to split than uranium two 0:17:16.200 --> 0:17:21.919 thirty eight or whatever. Each is, like it's across breaking 0:17:21.920 --> 0:17:24.920 apart itself, so it's easy to make it split up exactly, 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:28.119 it's less stable exactly, right. Yeah, and so that's fission. 0:17:28.280 --> 0:17:30.800 That's why you always hear uranium and uranium cakes and 0:17:31.040 --> 0:17:35.720 uranium enrichment. Exactly, uranium enrichment because the kind of uranium 0:17:35.720 --> 0:17:38.480 that you normally find in the ground a uranium mine 0:17:38.640 --> 0:17:40.880 is not uranium two thirty five is not the kind 0:17:40.960 --> 0:17:43.560 we want for nuclear weapons. That kind is pretty rare. 0:17:44.080 --> 0:17:46.560 It's you know, one in I don't know the number, 0:17:46.600 --> 0:17:49.399 but one in a zillion atoms of uranium that you 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:51.040 find in the ground is the kind of unique for 0:17:51.119 --> 0:17:54.080 nuclear weapons, which is why one of the big obstacles 0:17:54.080 --> 0:17:56.800 to making a nuclear weapon is not knowing how to 0:17:56.840 --> 0:17:59.520 do it, because this physics is pretty widely known. But 0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:03.480 hitting the fuel these that's why, for example, Iran was 0:18:03.520 --> 0:18:06.000 working on centrifuges, because they're trying to separate out the 0:18:06.040 --> 0:18:08.439 different isotopes uranium to get the one that's good for 0:18:08.480 --> 0:18:13.800 the bomb. I believe the numbers zero point Daniel. Wow, 0:18:13.840 --> 0:18:23.200 it's like your Siri or Wikipedia or something. Okay, So, yeah, 0:18:23.240 --> 0:18:25.359 so uranium is about to split and has a lot 0:18:25.400 --> 0:18:27.760 of energy. That's why they use it for fission bombs. 0:18:27.920 --> 0:18:30.159 That's right. But there's another key element, which is you 0:18:30.200 --> 0:18:32.320 can't just release the energy of one atom. I mean, 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:34.159 you can do that, but it's not very it's not 0:18:34.160 --> 0:18:37.040 going to be a very good bomb, right. And what 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:38.800 you need is, as we said, is to release a 0:18:38.800 --> 0:18:40.800 lot of energy all at once, and for that you 0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:42.920 need not just one atom to go, but a lot 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:45.840 of atoms to go. So for that to happen, you 0:18:45.880 --> 0:18:48.800 need to create a chain reaction. So meaning you take 0:18:48.840 --> 0:18:51.560 a lot of this enriched uranium, so uranium that has 0:18:51.600 --> 0:18:54.399 a lot of this U to thirty five, and you 0:18:54.400 --> 0:18:57.640 put it onto this one spot and then you cause 0:18:57.720 --> 0:19:00.640 a chain reaction. That's the idea of a bomb, right, yeah, exactly. 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:03.439 And so the neutrons that fly out and carry some 0:19:03.480 --> 0:19:06.719 of this leftover energy then bump into other uranium two 0:19:07.119 --> 0:19:14.120 five atoms which then phizzle, physicate, physicate, thank you, and um. 0:19:14.640 --> 0:19:16.520 And then it goes on and on and on, and 0:19:16.560 --> 0:19:19.240 you get more neutrons and more neutrons, and pretty soon 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:21.160 you have a huge number of neutrons flying out, which 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:25.159 create which causes a huge amount of atoms to split 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:27.800 all at the same time, and that's your explosion right there. 0:19:28.000 --> 0:19:29.800 In order that to happen, you. You need to have 0:19:29.960 --> 0:19:32.479 enough fuel and it needs to be dense enough so 0:19:32.520 --> 0:19:35.400 the neutrons bump into the other atoms. So that's called 0:19:35.400 --> 0:19:37.760 the critical mass. When you have enough fuel and a 0:19:37.840 --> 0:19:40.159 dense enough location, And that's really all you need to 0:19:40.160 --> 0:19:42.280 do to start the bomb off. Like a rumor or 0:19:42.320 --> 0:19:44.399 like a panic and a crowd. You need enough people 0:19:44.720 --> 0:19:47.480 jamp together to really cause a big panic. Yeah, exactly. 0:19:47.520 --> 0:19:49.679 For your analogy, you need something to trigger the other thing. 0:19:49.720 --> 0:19:52.000 It's like that seen in Stand By Me. You know, 0:19:52.040 --> 0:19:56.280 where they're vomiting vomits. Smell causes to other people to vomit, 0:19:56.320 --> 0:19:58.320 which costs four of the people to vomit, and pretty 0:19:58.320 --> 0:20:02.520 soon everybody, ah yeah that movie. Yeah, but if if 0:20:02.520 --> 0:20:05.320 people were not close together, then you wouldn't this reaction 0:20:05.320 --> 0:20:07.800 wouldn't catch fire, right Like, it wouldn't catch on. So 0:20:07.840 --> 0:20:09.840 you need you need a lot of people together, a 0:20:09.880 --> 0:20:13.320 lot of these atoms together to cause this chain reaction. Exactly. 0:20:13.320 --> 0:20:15.520 And all you need to do to create a nuclear weapon. 0:20:15.520 --> 0:20:17.119 People might be wondering, how do you start it to 0:20:17.280 --> 0:20:19.680 like have a pile of uranium and you like light 0:20:19.720 --> 0:20:22.000 a match or put a lighter on it or something. 0:20:22.520 --> 0:20:24.200 All you need to do is have enough fuel all 0:20:24.240 --> 0:20:26.880 put together, and one of the atoms inside it will 0:20:26.880 --> 0:20:29.160 be unstable enough to just fall apart on its own 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:31.240 and that will trigger the chain reaction, which it leads 0:20:31.240 --> 0:20:33.760 to the explosion. And so the way the nuclear bomb 0:20:33.800 --> 0:20:37.000 actually works is you basically have two subcritical masses, like 0:20:37.000 --> 0:20:39.200 a chunk uranium here and a chunk uranium there, and 0:20:39.320 --> 0:20:42.439 you just slam them together and uh, and then it 0:20:42.520 --> 0:20:47.800