Thank you for this article. If it informs even one person of the qualitative difference between conventional weapons and atomic bombs, this article will have served.
A small issue:
Re: "Matter ... could be converted into pure energy."
Energy is not a thing; rather, it is a thermodynamic calculation which describes the behavior of things. What is called the "annihilation of mass" actually converts the mass into the behavior of other masses and electromagnetic radiation.
"A single gram of matter — hydrogen, plutonium or human hair, it doesn’t matter — contains a staggeringly vast amount of energy, enough to explode with the force of the bomb that destroyed Nagasaki in 1945." Wow. Great article.
Thank you for this article. If it informs even one person of the qualitative difference between conventional weapons and atomic bombs, this article will have served.
A small issue:
Re: "Matter ... could be converted into pure energy."
Energy is not a thing; rather, it is a thermodynamic calculation which describes the behavior of things. What is called the "annihilation of mass" actually converts the mass into the behavior of other masses and electromagnetic radiation.
"A single gram of matter — hydrogen, plutonium or human hair, it doesn’t matter — contains a staggeringly vast amount of energy, enough to explode with the force of the bomb that destroyed Nagasaki in 1945." Wow. Great article.