
Kilotons per kilogram (2013) - okket
http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2013/12/23/kilotons-per-kilogram/
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donquichotte
It would be interesting to see a comparison with Soviet weapons. The only one
mentioned is the Tsar Bomba which had a maximum yield of 100Mt (the one the
Soviets actually tested was detuned to 50Mt and still burned a hole in the
Ozone layer) and clocked in at around 27'000kg.

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arethuza
Another thing that was impressive about the Tsar Bomba was how quickly it was
developed - 16 weeks from project start to the actual test.

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ajarmst
Hmmm. A kiloton is pretty close to 1000 tonne, or a gigagram. So kilotons per
kilogram is a fancy way of saying "about one million". :-)

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logfromblammo
A kiloton is not a Gg. It is the equivalent explosive energy to the detonation
of a Gg of trinitrotoluene. It is 4.184 TJ.

Thus, the kiloton/kg ratio for TNT is set by convention at 0.001, because you
need 1000 kg of TNT to produce one kiloton of explosive energy, and the energy
released in a TNT explosion is somewhat variable.

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bonzini
1000 kg of TNT produces one _ton_ of energy, not one kiloton, so TNT is set by
convention at 10^-6 kt/kg.

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logfromblammo
Too right, and thank you for the correction. This is exactly why we should all
just use the SI unit, the joule.

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bonzini
The SI unit for kt/kg is 4.184 TJ/kg, but it's cooler to write it as 4.184
Mm^2/s^2, that is the square of a (huge) speed!

