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Asked by florida to Andrew, Ash, Gem, Paige, SJ on 28 Jun 2012.
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Andrew Thomas answered on 28 Jun 2012:
Hi, there are different types of nuclear weapons which work either by splitting atoms – fission, or forcing two atoms of hydrogen together to make helium (this is what happens in the sun). You can read more here. http://hassam.hubpages.com/hub/How-Does-A-Nuclear-Bomb-Work
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Ashley Cadby answered on 28 Jun 2012:
A nuclear bomb is a nuclear chain reaction. In a nuclear bomb the reaction is caused by particel crashing in to atoms. With some nuclear reactions you can get out enough new particles to make the reaction carry on and even grow very rapidly. All the energy that you gat from breaking atoms causes heat which is a bomb. If you coat you bomb with small atoms which can fuse together you can get even more energy out, that is a H bomb
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Paige Brown answered on 29 Jun 2012:
Basically, as Ash says, a CHAIN reaction, or a ‘runaway reaction’, a reaction that keeps occurring on its own after you provide the stimulus or ‘spark’ to get the reaction going. That is why runaway or chain reactions can be dangerous, creating explosions as massive amounts of energy are produced.
This is a great explanation: (http://www.ucsusa.org/nuclear_weapons_and_global_security/nuclear_weapons/technical_issues/nuclear-weapons-how-they.html)
“The nuclei of atoms consist of two types of particles: positively charged protons and neutrons with no electric charge. (All atoms of the same element have the same number of protons, but the number of neutrons can vary.) The nuclei of some radioactive elements can split—or fission—if bombarded with fast-moving neutrons. The by-products of this fission are two lighter nuclei, one or more free neutrons, and energy in the form of heat and light.
Certain isotopes of radioactive elements (i.e., variations of the same element with different numbers of neutrons in the nucleus) such as plutonium-239 or uranium-235 can emit two neutrons when they fission. These secondary neutrons then collide with other nearby nuclei, causing them to fission and release two more neutrons. Each fission reaction doubles the amount of neutrons and energy released, causing a chain reaction. After only a few microseconds, this chain reaction can produce an explosion equivalent to the detonation of many thousands of tons (or kilotons) of TNT. The so-called atomic (or A-) bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nag asaki, Japan, in 1945 were fission-based, and had explosive yields equivalent to about 15 and 20 kilotons of TNT, respectively. Similar fission processes (though controlled) generate the energy in nuclear reactors.”
So you see, its all about splitting atoms and creating so many new atoms and particles so quickly that you get an explosion as all those particles expand so quickly. They need somewhere to go! And all it takes if for that first unstable atom to split and start the chain reaction…
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